Research Opportunities

Practical research experience is an invaluable part of an undergraduate Physics education.  In addition to being an essential part of the evaluation process for graduate school or industry, such experiences will help students decide what fields of research might interest them the most.

Most internships are 10 weeks long and are paid.  Many include travel and housing.  Interns are usually paired with a mentor to work on a specific project, the scope of which has been chosen to be completed in the alotted time.  There are often talks, tours, and another social and enrichment activities scheduled as part of the internship.  In the end, many internships require a paper and/or presentation about the project.

It's worth mentioning that many of the formal internships require US citizenship or permanent resident status.  We will specifically discuss internships that are open to foreign nationals shortly.  

NSF Funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)

This is is a HUGE program funded by the NSF, which is described here.  It covers a wide variety of topics. 

It's not centrally managed.  Rather individual universities, labs, and other organizations get funding from the NSF and then administer the programs themselves.  This means you have to find the programs that interest you and then apply to them individually.  You can find a list of all the individual programs here, filtered by interest and location.  Be warned: lots of these links are stale. 

Program deadlines vary, with most applications due in late January. 

US citizenship is a requiement to receive NSF funding, but some individual program will accept a small number of foreign nationals, paid out of separate funds.  See the individual internships for details.

Deparment of Energy Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI)

This is the DOE's version of the REU program.  It has a centrally managed application system that matches students to one of the 17 DOE laboratories.  

  • Students state a first and second lab choice in the application.
  • Diverse, but not as diverse as the REU programs.

Click here for information and to apply.  US citizenship required.

UCD Physics major Sarah Edwards (B.S., 2021) was a participant in the program in the summer of 2021 and subsequently went on to graduate school.  Read about her experience here: https://lettersandscience.ucdavis.edu/news/discovering-stem-careers-through-undergraduate-internships

Other Internships

This list is by no means exhaustive, but here are some specific internships

  • University of Michigan CERN REU. 
    • Spend a Summer at CERN! 
    • Click here for information and to apply.
    • Deadline Jan 3.
    • Only open to US citizens and permanent residents.
  • CalTech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
    • Click here for details
    • Applications complicated and competetive.  Individual researchers post openings and you apply directly to them.
    • Some are only open to CalTech students, but many of the others are open to foreign nationals!
  • Lee Teng Undergraduate Internship
    • Focused on accelerator physics
    • Traditionally at Fermilab and Argonne, but this year only at Argonne
    • Click here for information and to apply.
    • Deadline January 6.
    • Open for foreign nationals!

Resources for Foreign Nationals

These  universities have compiled lists of internships that are open to both US citizens and foreign nationals

UC Davis Resources

The Campus Career Center is an excellent resource for all things career related. All students should familiarize themselves with it!

  • Near the bottom is a link the Handshake, which is kind of like LinkedIn for students.  You already have an account, you just need to activate it.
  • Lots of training videos can be found here.

Other Resources

  • The MIT SPS has curated an excellent page on summer research opportunities.

On Campus Opportunities

Many UC Davis professors include one or more undergraduates in their research groups. Doing research as an undergraduate can expose you to a side of physics very different from coursework, train you in marketable skills from machining to computer programming, and provide a break from problem sets. Usually a student interested in joining a research group contacts the professor directly. The following list of faculty and brief research descriptions is meant to make this process easier. All faculty named here (as well as some who aren't) are willing to work with undergraduates. Click here for more information.

In winter 2024, the department's Graduate Student Association, GradOPS, compiled a spreadsheet of faculty willing to work with undergraduate students on research in the near term, along with prospective project details and prerequisites. See spreadsheet here. 

Internship Information Meetings

(Page last updated December 18, 2024 by Eric Prebys)