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Undergraduate Research in Astronomy (REU)

NOTE: THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ASTRONOMY REU PROGRAM WILL NOT BE RUNNING FOR THE SUMMER OF 2024.  THE STATUS OF THE PROGRAM FOR SUMMER 2025 IS UNCLEAR, AND PENDING FUNDING.  THE BELOW IS THE ARCHIVED VERSION OF THIS PAGE, AND IS OUT OF DATE.

Please do not email for updates: this message will be removed as soon as information is known.

 

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The Department of Astronomy is excited to announce that it will be the host site for an NSF funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) for the Summer of 2023.  The due date for applications is February 1st, 2023.

Applying

We encourage applications from all interested students, regardless of their specific previous training in astronomy or data science.

Applications for the UF REU program must be submitted by February 1st, 2023.  Application packages are comprised of a single PDF document that contains the following:

    1. A completed applicant questionnaire (found here).  
    2. A CV or Resume
    3. A transcript (an unofficial transcript is fine for applying, but an official transcript may be required before acceptances are finalized).
    4. On a single page, we would like you to answer the following two very brief questions:  
      1. In 150 words or less: Please describe your professional goals, and how participating in this REU will help you achieve those goals.  If this REU provides a unique opportunity that is not available at your home institution, please tell us this directly. Note: We will not necessarily favor students with one professional trajectory over another.  Instead, we simply want to understand how you envision this summer experience furthering your professional training.
      2. In 150 words or less: Please describe your programming and computing experience. We are most interested in understanding your level of experience with Python or similar languages. Note: We expect students will enter our program with a wide range of backgrounds, and applications with limited programming experience will be given full consideration.  Our goal is to use this information to make sure students are paired with projects that require appropriate initial skill levels.
    5. We seek students who have grit.  We want students who can face obstacles in their research, but find ways to overcome those obstacles.  In 500 words or less, tell us about a time you faced adversity or a challenge, and how you dealt with it.
    6. In 500 words or less, teach us how to do one of your favorite hobbies and explain why you love it. For example: you could teach us how to day trade, how to paint, or how to plant a garden.  Our goal is to use this information to evaluate your written communication skills, and to understand how you communicate.
    7. Finally, please submit a personal statement of 500 words or less.  If there are any elements of your application that might appear weaker than you think is fair (e.g., a low grade in a class, a lack of experience in astronomy classes, limited programming experience, etc.) you can use this space to help us understand the context.  The most effective personal statements allow us to put your application into context so that we can better appreciate your strengths, and better understand your weaknesses.

Key Dates

  • February 1st, 2023 Application Deadline
  • March 1st, 2023 1st round of admittance letters sent

The Program

Our program will run from approximately the last week of May through the last week of July (dates tentative, pending UF Housing arrangements).   Students will work on a diverse range of projects in Astrophysics, with a particular slant toward computationally and data-intensive projects.   Areas of research include, but are not limited to:

  • Galaxy formation and evolution
  • Cosmology and large scale structure
  • Exoplanets
  • Star formation in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies
  • The first stars
  • Compact objects, and LIGO Electromagnetic counterparts
  • The interstellar medium

Our program includes a stipend of $6000 for a 10 week Summer, as well as housing on the UF campus.  Students will reside in UF dorms, and will be invited to participate in both professional development activities (i.e. orientation/onboarding;  GRE prep course work; scientific presentation development), as well as social activities.

Facilities

The UF Astronomy Department plays host to a number of observational and computational facilities, including the GTC telescope, Dark Energy Spectroscopic Experiment (DESI) survey, Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Survey (MINERVA), and HiPerGator2.0 supercomputing cluster.  Students will work on data/simulations that come from these telescopes, as well as other national/international facilities.  More broadly, the University is engaged in a partnership with NVIDIA that is further enhancing our goals of interfacing informatics and data science with astrophysics.

This program is funded by the National Science Foundation through grant #1851954.