Physics and Astronomy Summer Research Projects 2026
If you are interested in research opportunities, please click on the links below. We also encourage you to contact the individual department members associated with the projects for further information about the research.
Program Dates
May 26, 2026 - July 31, 2026Click on the project name for a more detailed description of the project
Project Name: Rare-isotope beam spectrometers
Project Mentor: Matt Amthor
Project Code: (MA-1)
Nuclear physics seeks to understand the structure of--and reactions between--nuclei, which are the dominant constituents (by mass) of the everyday stuff that we see around us. While the chemical properties are determined by the atomic number--determining which element a substance is--the nuclear properties change significantly across the different isotopes of a single element (atoms with more or fewer neutrons). Isotopes not typically found on earth--so-called rare isotopes, with atypically large or small numbers of neutrons for a given element--play important roles in the universe: energy generation in stars; production of the stable elements that make up our solar system; and the process of several kinds of explosive events, from supernovae to neutron star or black hole mergers.
We study rare isotopes experimentally by producing them in nuclear reactions in the laboratory, then examining how they decay or how they interact with other species in further nuclear reactions. Because rare isotopes are often short-lived, we often study them as particle beams, in-flight, immediately after they are produced, while still travelling at significant fractions of the speed of light. This project will focus on particle spectrometers, which are the tool that we use to separate and study the products that come from reactions with rare isotope particle beams. Your project this summer will be to examine and develop techniques to improve the operation of particle spectrometers by coupling computational models to Monte Carlo simulations and advanced optimization algorithms. The work may involve brief travel for experimental tests of these optimizations on actual particle beamlines, for example, at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy that focuses on the study of rare isotopes, or at other facilities with similar research spectrometers.
Project Name: Using Water Vapor Masers to Measure the Rotation of a Black Hole Accretion Disk
Project Mentor: Jack Gallimore
Project Code: (JG-1)
The rotation of molecular accretion disks is inferred from the pattern of Doppler-shifted velocities of water vapor masers surrounding supermassive black holes. In one source, we found evidence of a highly polarized filamentary structures, suggesting the origin of a hydromagnetically powered wind. Based on two epochs of VLBI observations separated by almost two years, we also found evidence for proper motions inconsistent with a purely rotating disk. Some of the proper motions are anomalously rapid and, if interpreted as kinematic motions of individual clouds, would imply superballistic infall. We argue for a more realistic scenario in which the proper motions are an illusion arising from excitation waves generated by shadows cast by clouds closer to the black hole. As the shadows of inner clouds sweep across the outer clouds, the shadowed clouds cool and stop producing maser radiation, but newly exposed clouds begin to produce maser emission. Students will work on the third epoch of data to monitor the apparent proper motions. The primary goal is to determine whether the apparent proper motions persist or are artifacts of stochastic variability.
Project Name: Mechanics and Structural Dynamics of Microtubule--Vimentin Cytoskeletal Composites
Project Mentor: Bekele Gurmessa
Project Code: (BJG-1)
Biological cells rely on a dynamic network of cytoskeletal biopolymers to move, change shape, and maintain structural integrity. These behaviors arise from molecular interactions among cytoskeletal proteins, but connecting molecular mechanics to large-scale cellular responses remains a key challenge. This project addresses that gap by studying how microtubules (MTs) and vimentin intermediate filaments (VIFs) work together in composite networks.
We investigate in vitro MT--VIF networks using optical trapping and laser-scanning confocal microscopy, systematically varying their relative concentrations to uncover how their interactions shape emergent mechanical and structural properties.
Students will prepare cytoskeletal networks, perform optical tweezers measurements, image samples with confocal microscopy, and analyze data. The project offers hands-on training in biophysical instrumentation, wet-lab techniques, and quantitative analysis. No prior experience is required--only enthusiasm for experimental biophysics.
Project Name: Characterizing Dark Matter
Detector Electronics
Project Mentor: Abby Kopec
Project
Code: (AMK-1)
Dark Matter particles floating through space may collide with atomic nuclei. We can make an experiment to try to see this process with liquid argon or xenon. These noble elements cause flashes of light and emit electrons when they get bumped, and we can see individual photons with photosensors. Other sensors maintain the thermodynamical conditions for the experiment. This project will build on an existing pipeline for data that goes from producing controlled photons, to the photons hitting the sensor, to the signal waveforms being accessible as data arrays in python jupyter notebooks. The data from the other sensors will also need to be monitored for stability. The student will gain experience with electronics, circuits, and coding with C++, LabView and Python Jupyter Notebooks.
Project Name: Building the Dark Matter Detector Apparatus
Project Mentor: Abby Kopec
Project
Code: (AMK-2)
Dark Matter particles floating through space may collide with atomic nuclei. We can make an experiment to try to see this process with liquid argon or xenon. The noble elements have to be in a well-sealed system, with the ability to purify and maintain thermal equilibrium. Work is needed to assemble the gas handling system with a purification loop and integrate all infrastructure to house the experiment's detector, which will need to be cooled to liquify the noble element. Work can also begin to set up the detector for operation and characterization. The student will gain experience with vacuum system technology, drafting, and construction of a sensitive particle experiment.
Project Name: Characterizing the XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment
Project Mentor: Abby Kopec
Project
Code: (AMK-3)
Dark Matter particles floating through space may collide with atomic nuclei. The XENONnT experiment tries to see this process with liquid xenon, and recently was upgraded to new hardware. Work is needed to model the detector electric fields and characterize the detector's signal response to optimize running conditions. The student will gain experience with Python data analysis in Jupyter Notebooks, and potentially COMSOL Multiphysics Suite, depending on analysis or modeling preferences.
Project Name: Chaotic mixing, swimming microbes, and propagating reaction fronts
Project Mentor: Tom Solomon
Project Code: (THS-1)
There is currently tremendous interest in "active matter" systems in the condensed matter physics and biophysics communities. These are complex fluid systems with components that have an internal energy source that causes spontaneous movement relative to the fluid. Examples include fluids with swimming and flying organisms (e.g., swimming microbes or fish and flying insects or birds), artificial devices that move relative to the surrounding fluid (active colloids, drug delivery devices, or boats/planes), reaction fronts that move relative to the fluid while consuming the reactants (e.g., a forest fire or an industrial chemical process), molecular "motors" in a living cells, growing biological colonies in flowing ecosystems, and the spreading of diseases in a moving population of animals or people.
We are conducting a wide range of experiments to test universally-applicable theories of "invariant manifolds" that predict invisible barriers that stop the motion of active tracers in laminar (smooth) fluid flows. In particular, we are studying the motion of reaction fronts and swimming bacteria/algae/shrimp in laboratory- and microfluidic-scale fluid flows. We are also studying "deterministic chaos" in these systems that can have a significant effect on the spreading of active impurities and on processes such as the "blooming" of reactions and colonies of microbes in a fluid flow, similar to algae blooms in the oceans.
There is a lot of hands-on work involved in these projects, including the designing, building and testing of the experimental apparatus, constructing and working with microfluidic devices, mixing chemicals for the reactions, culturing of bacteria or algae, microscopy, and doing numerous experimental data runs. The experimental work also involves a substantial amount of computer-aided image analysis, almost exclusively on Linux workstations running a program called IDL. We also frequently conduct numerical simulations of the phenomena, also with IDL. Although experience in computer analysis is useful, it is not required as long as the student involved is willing and eager to learn IDL.
Project Name: Development of Atomic and Induction Coil Magnetometers
Project Mentor: Ibrahim Sulai
Project Code: (IS-1)
In my lab, we are interested in developing sensors to measure magnetic fields at the femto-Tesla level (i.e. 10-15 Tesla). For scale, the earth's magnetic field is over 10^8 times larger at 50 micro Tesla level. The motivation for making measurements of such small fields is to probe effects arising from physics beyond the standard model -- that is from particles that have been theoretically proposed to help explain some outstanding questions in physics such as "axions", and "dark photons". This summer, we will be working on two magnetometer designs: a cesium atomic magnetometer, and an induction coil magnetometer.
Atomic magnetometers work on the basis of the interaction of the atomic spin and the background magnetic field. In our lab, we work with atomic spins in Rubidium, Cesium and Helium-3. Using resonant laser light, we can read out the atoms' interaction with the magnetic field. The goals of this project are to investigate ways of amplifying the signal using optical cavities, as well as to learn about the behavior of systems having different a mixture of species which may interact with each other. An induction coil magnetometer works on the basis of the Faraday effect, which states that a time varying magnetic field will induce a current in a coil.
Using low noise electronics, we plan to measure fields at the femto-Tesla level using both atomic magnetometers and the induction coil magnetometer. In addition to electronics, this project also involves work in optics, hardware development (machining, 3D printing etc), and signal analysis.
Project Name: Spectroscopy of Palladium Atoms and Ions
Project Mentor: Ibrahim Sulai
Project Code: (IS-2)
Palladium has six stable isotopes -- five of which have nuclear spin of zero. A consequence of this is that there is no nuclear magnetic interaction between the electrons and the nucleus and so the atomic structure of five of the six isotopes is significantly simplified. We are interested in determining the energy levels of some narrow transitions in the neutral and singly ionized palladium. The narrowness of the transition is related to the Heisenberg principle, as the excited states are long lived, and hence we call them metastable.
We are able to determine the energy levels with high precision and this precision will allow us to search for (or constrain) subtle signatures of physics beyond the standard model that arise in interactions between neutrons and electrons. Last year, we developed a metastable atom source. This summer, we will excite the atoms with an external light source in order to obtain their absorption spectra. We also plan to investigate transitions in palladium ions – and work on developing an ion trap system that will allow us to acquire spectra from samples containing few ions. The work involves electronics, hardware design and optics.
How Red Dwarfs Generate High-Energy Particles (2 positions open)
Project Mentor: Jackie Villadsen
Project Code: (JV-1)
Red dwarf stars, which are smaller and cooler than the Sun, are 3/4 of the stars in the universe and they are home to most of the nearby Earth-sized exoplanets. However, these small stars have strong magnetic fields that lead to violent magnetic explosions on the stellar surface, known as flares. In a stellar flare, the magnetic field around the star suddenly snaps into a lower energy state (magnetic reconnection), and the rapidly changing magnetic field causes charged particles (electrons and protons) to accelerate to relativistic speeds, which result in a temporary increase in light from the star. The goal of this research is to understand the population of accelerated particles around red dwarfs, which is part of the "space weather" environment that impacts exoplanets. To do this, we will study radio waves emitted during flares, since radio waves trace the properties of the accelerated electrons. In this project, you will take the lead on analyzing or modeling radio and optical telescope observations of one of 7 nearby red dwarfs; these data have already been collected using the Very Large Array and the TESS satellite. You will learn to use Linux, Python, and specialized astronomy software to graph the brightness of the star versus time to look for flares, and calculate how flare energy (from optical) relates to high-energy particle properties (from radio).
Nonequilibrium Statistical Physics Fluctuation Identities
Project Mentor: Ben Vollmayr-Lee
Project Code: (BVL-1)
In the past few decades there has been huge progress in discovering new nonequilibrium fluctuation identities. These identities, which can be viewed as generalizations of the laws of thermodynamics, apply even for small systems and far from thermal equilibrium, which is remarkable. In work with previous students we have a developed an identity for a chemical reaction network system that is a nonequilibrium generalization of an important identity called the fluctuation-dissipation relation. This project would involve studying this generalized fluctuation-dissipation relation and developing numerical tests to confirm its validity.