Summer Research Opportunities for Undergraduates

Summer is a great time to get involved in research, whether it's in a field you intend to study seriously, or in one you just want to try out. There are many opportunities for funding, as you'll see below, and you are encouraged to take advantage of these. Note that most REU application deadlines run from mid January to early March, so you should get started in early January (or late in the fall semester if some of the early deadlines mentioned below are relevant).

In addition to being a fun way to spend your summer, a research job will (1) allow you to learn lots of things, (2) give you a flavor of what grad school and industry are like, if these are in your plans, and (3) allow various scientists to get to know you and your work, which is always a good thing (actually, a necessary thing) when it comes time to obtain letters of recommendation.

Some programs require you to have completed your sophomore or junior year, but there are also plenty that are available for freshmen. So if you're interested in doing research, there's no excuse for not getting started early. Start searching around, an join in the fun!

Your summer research can be funded in five basic ways. The funds may come from:

  1. An REU program (this money comes from the NSF).
  2. Other organized programs that aren't REUs.
  3. The Physics Department.
  4. Various Harvard fellowships/programs.
  5. A specific faculty member (that is, from internal lab funds).

In more detail, these five basic ways to get funding are:

  1. REU Programs: Professors throughout the country can apply for "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Undergraduates in turn can apply to these programs for the opportunity to do summer research. There are many programs in a variety of scientific fields. The application deadlines generally run from mid January to early March. The webpage with the list of all the existing programs is:

    NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program

    There are lots and lots of fields listed here, including Physics, Materials Research, Astronomy, Chemistry, Computer Science, Biology, and many more. So don't just look at the Physics ones! Programs are sometimes added late to the list, so check it periodically for changes.
     
  2. Non-REU Programs: There are many other programs that are funded by various departments/agencies/schools, but that are not REUs. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive list of these, but emails are occasionally sent to the SPS list. Here's a list of some websites (if you know of any other non-REU programs like these, please let David Morin know!)


    Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) at National Labs, funded by DOE
    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    DOE Scholars Program
    Caltech's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) and other programs
    Perimeter Scholars International
    Summer Research Opportunities at Harvard (SROH)
    Summer Internship Programs at Fermilab
    Research Internships in Science and Engineering (in Germany)
    NIST SURF
    NASA Internships
    Lincoln Labs/MIT
    Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
    Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astonomy
    Wolfram Research (Mathematica)
    National Security Agency
    NCAR Computational Science
    Mignone Center for Career Success
     

  3. The Harvard Physics Department has some funds available for summer research on campus. The deadline for applying is Sunday, March 24, 2024. David Morin will send out a link to the application in mid March.

    The basic strategy for finding a professor and forming a proposal is to look around for a few professors whose work interests you, and to then start knocking on doors and sending out emails. Informal, but effective. See this list of the Physics faculty, and also this list organized by Research area.

    These funds are limited, which means that the larger the number of students who stay on campus, the smaller the funding amount will be. You are therefore encouraged to apply to REU programs. If you don't have a specific reason to stay at Harvard over the summer, it would be a shame to ignore the mindboggling number of REUs out there. If you decide to decline them in favor of a lab here at Harvard, that's fine. But for one summer, you may want to take advantage of the opportunity to explore things and visit another university. Travel around the world, see interesting places and people, and do physics. One caveat: If you are planning on going to physics grad school, you should definitely spend at least one summer here at Harvard (perhaps two), bookended with one or two 90r's before and/or after, to have an extended period of time for your research.

    If you do reseach here at Harvard with Physics Dept funding, your overall funding will likely come from a combination of sources: Physics Dept, HCRP, and internal lab funds.
     
  4. Harvard has various other souces of funding. There are many programs listed on the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (URAF) page. In particular:

    1) The Harvard College Research Program is an important source of funding. Their deadline is also Sunday, March 24, 2024. To be eligible for Physics funding, you must apply to HCRP.

    2) The PRISE Program offers housing along with social and educational events. You are strongly encouraged to apply. The deadline is early: Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

    3) You should also consider applying for the Herchel Smith Fellowship. The deadline is very early: Sunday, February 4, 2024. This is a fantastic fellowship. If you get it, it basically takes care of all your summer-money worries.

    4) If you are interested in going abroad, you should consider the Weissman Fellowship. 

    5) Other Harvard sources of funding can be found on the Office of Career Services page and on the above URAF page.
     
  5. Internal lab funds:  You can avoid all the above funding issues by going directly to a professor who happens to have some grant money available for undergraduate summer research. Some do, some don't. This strategy definitely requires some running around. But note well -- it would be very unwise to use only this strategy unless you have an early guarantee that it's going to work.

Contact David Morin if you have any questions. Good luck!!

[Note: The Harvard funds listed on this page are available only to Harvard students.]

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