The University of Alabama strongly encourages students to get involved in research throughout their undergraduate degree. Research significantly enhances a student’s understanding of the scientific process and is a critical component of a student’s qualifications for graduate programs, especially in the fields of physics and astronomy.
Research Opportunities
Students at The University of Alabama have multiple opportunities to undertake research both within the Dept. and University or at external sites such as national labs or other institutions. In addition, students at UA are awarded the opportunity to present their research at regional and national conferences and meetings. For more information on research opportunities, please refer to the following sites:
- College of A&S Undergraduate Research
- Emerging Scholars Program — for Freshman
- Randall Research Scholars Program – for Freshman
- www.facultyresearchdatabase.ua.edu – for a partial list of available UA undergrad research opportunities
- UA Career Center
- UA Undergrad Research Conference
- NSF REU summer programs (Research Experience for Undergraduates)
- American Physical Society: List of Internships & Summer Programs
- American Astronomical Society: List of Internships & Summer Programs
- Federal opportunities for undergrads at science.gov
- NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative (OSSI)
- Pathways to Science – this is a project of the Institute for Broadening Participation (IBP). It supports pathways to the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Pathways to Science places particular emphasis on connecting women and minority groups with STEM programs, funding, mentoring, and resources. Its website can be used to find undergraduate summer research opportunities and graduate fellowships.
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy Undergrad Research
The Department of Physics and Astronomy provides many opportunities for students majoring or minoring in physics, astronomy, or related fields, to be involved in active research on cutting edge scientific topics. This page lists some faculty currently seeking undergraduates to be involved in research and examples of projects students are currently or have recently been involved in.
The following faculty members are currently accepting undergraduate students for research projects: Jeremy Bailin, Thejesh Bandi, Sergei Gleyzer, Adam Hauser, Matthias Kaminski, Marzieh Kavand, Preethi Nair, Andreas Piepke, Marcos Santander, Dean Townsley, Wang-Kong Tse.
If you are a student looking to get into research and something sounds interesting to you, please email the faculty member and make an appointment to discuss research with them. You are also encouraged to contact other faculty members not on the list above to inquire about projects during the semester or the summer.
Current & Recent Projects
| Project | Student(s) | Faculty Member |
|---|---|---|
| Dual accreting supermassive black holes in merging galaxies | Isabella Dugas | Dr. Nair |
| Theoretical investigation of valley Hall effect in 2D transition metal dichalcogenide under photoexcitation | Phuong Nguyen | Wang-Kong Tse |
| Micromagnetic investigations of spatial fluctuations of the first order perpendicular anisotropy | Kayla Cole | Dr. C. Mewes |
| X-ray properties of merging galaxies | Jeremy Cummings | Dr. Nair |
| Structural decomposition of elliptical galaxies in the HST COSMOS and Frontier field | Jacob Powell | Dr. Nair |
| Measuring Spiral Arms in nearby galaxies | Carlisle Wishard | Dr. Nair |
| Structural decomposition of barred galaxies in the HST COSMOS field | Alex Hoffmann | Dr. Nair |
| Impedance analysis of zirconium-based chemical sensor materials | Cole Harris | Dr. Hauser |
| Theoretical investigation of damping in exchange bias systems | Alison Farrar | Dr. C. Mewes |
| X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) of metal-oxide nanoparticles | Josh Phillips | Dr. Hauser |
| Applying pattern recognition techniques to galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Illustris simulation | John Andrews | Dr. Nair |
| Thermal Spin Transfer Torque in Confined Systems | Jessica Pugh | Dr. C. Mewes |
| τ neutrino detection in IceCube and IceCube-Gen2 | James Parkes | Dr. Williams |
| Materials Design for Spintronic Devices | Jaclyn Schillinger | Dr. C. Mewes |
| Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction of Epitaxial Films | Thomas Jacob McDill | Dr. Mankey |
| Photometry of Galaxy Zoo collisional ring galaxies | Kevin Battles | Dr. Keel |
| Raman Spectroscopy of carbon coalescence induced modes | Wagner Souza | Dr. Araujo |
| Automation of a Near-Field tip production apparatus | Jordan Fuhrman | Dr. Araujo |
| Setting up a Magnetostriction apparatus: a instrumentation point of view | Kaio Alexandre | Dr. Araujo |
| Introduction to experimental particle physics research | Jacob Morrison, Shaun Hogan, Alison Marsh | Dr. Henderson |
| Hard-Magnetic Alloy Formation in Magnetic Superlattices | Jake Green | Dr. Schad |
| Studying the Outskirts of Non-Cool Core Galaxy Clusters With Suzaku | Kaitlyn Lyle | Dr. Irwin |
| How quickly do the properties of dark matter halos change? | Michael Sitarz | Dr. Bailin |
| The formation of warps in galaxy formation simulations | Kevin Battles | Dr. Bailin |
| Synthetic images of simulated galaxies | Matthew Leeds | Dr. Bailin |
| Development of calibration sources for dark matter search experiments | Jaclyn Schillinger | Dr. Busenitz |
| Detection and control of of radon-induced activities in bulk plastic | Brett Kizer | Dr. Busenitz |
| Research with the Hadron Calorimeter of the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC | Kyle Miskell | Dr. Rumerio |
| Development of a radon detector. | Emily Baade, Alexander Mathers, William Layfield | Dr. Piepke |
| Switching behavior of RAMA (Reconfigurable Array of Magnetic Automata) cells | Kevin Jenkins | Dr. C. Mewes |
| Vibrating sample magnetometry | Josh Jones | Dr. LeClair |
| Calibration of IceCube Energy Scale with LED Flashers | Brian Hannan | Dr. Williams |
| Simple experiments for public outreach | Terrance Gibson | Dr. LeClair |
| Calibration of Radio Neutrino Detectors in South Pole Ice | Timothy Keele | Dr. Williams |
| Verifying Shock-capturing Methods for Hydrodynamic Simulations in Degenerate Matter | Broxton Miles | Dr. Townsley |
| Fourier-transform noise spectroscopy | Tara Gernhardt | Dr. LeClair |
| Development of a thin film susceptometer | Sarah Betzig & Anthony Castro | Dr. LeClair |
| Analog & digital electronics | Josh McDonald & Nick Ragland | Dr. LeClair |
| Development and installation of a data acquisition system for the cosmic ray veto detector of the EXO double beta decay experiment. | Evan Niner, Mitchell Hughes | Dr. Piepke |
| Development of an open-source 3D physics engine | Ryan Tucker | Dr. LeClair |
| Construction and characterization of a solid-state audio-distortion circuit | Hunter Adams, Mathew Ware, Dan Mitchell | Dr. LeClair |
| X-ray reflectivity of epitaxial multilayered structures | Eric Edwards | Drs. LeClair & Mankey |
| Fabrication and Calibration of Muon Veto Panels for the EXO Neutrino Project | Matt Sturdivant | Dr. Piepke |
| Non-local damping effects in Py-Cu-FeMn trilayers | Eric Edwards | Dr. Mewes |
| Monte Carlo simulation of electron track topology in gaseous Xenon | Kurt Barry | Dr. Piepke |
| Low temperature and high frequency ferromagnetic resonance investigations | Matthew Bradford | Dr. Mewes |
| Calculation of ion transport through gaseous Xenon | Evan Niner | Dr. Piepke |
| Investigating magnetostrictive properties of thin ferromagnetic films on silicon substrates | Wes Erbsen | Dr. Mewes |
| Development of data acquisition hardware for the EXO muon veto | Spencer Carter & Mitchell Hughes | Dr. Piepke |
| Developing an algorithm for detecting double-pulse structures induced by tau neutrino interactions in IceCube data | Daniel Bush | Dr. Williams |
| Stoner-Wohlfarth astroid (online simulation) | Michael Vogel | Dr. Mewes |
| Developing a tau neutrino simulation in the low-energy extension of the IceCube neutrino detector | Heath Gurganus | Dr. Williams |
| Characterization of solid-state and vacuum tube audio amplifiers | John Kentros & Hunter Adams | Dr. LeClair |
| Electron Tunneling through self-assembled monolayers | Abel Demissie | Dr. LeClair & Dr. Szulczewski (CH) |
| Impedance spectroscopy and optically-assisted transport in organic semiconductors | Dina Genkina | Dr. LeClair |
| Preparation and testing of plastic scintillation detectors for the EXO neutrinoless double beta decay experiment | Kurt Barry & Evan Niner | Dr. Piepke |
| Low cost data acquisition system for undergraduate electricity and magnetism lab experiments | Eric Stough | Dr. Mewes & Dr. LeClair |
| Development of a microwave point-contact system for spin-torque tunneling experiments | Joan Reichwien | Dr. LeClair & Dr. Mewes |
| Testing of the cosmic ray veto detector system for the EXO double beta decay project | Evan Niner | Dr. Piepke |
| Census of star formation in the galaxy cluster Abell 851, from Kitt Peak imagery and correlated with galaxy structures from Hubble data | Christy Hyde | Dr. Keel |
| Surface photometry of Seyfert galaxies from Hubble archival data, part of a wider project on the history of supermassive black holes | Cassandra Morton | Dr. Keel |
| Connections between dust structures in galaxy nuclei, from Hubble data, and structures in the outer regions of the galaxies as seen in ground-based images | Stephanie Cunningham | Dr. Keel |
| 222Rn activity detection Limits of delayed coincidence | Evan Niner | Dr. Piepke |
| Electron Spectroscopy of Ultra Thin Magnetic Films 9/05-present | Patrick Patterson | Dr. Mankey |
| Thin Film Materials for Magnetic Storage | Jason Duty | Dr. Mankey |
| Construction of an Advanced Electronic Control System | David Wilbert | Dr. Mankey |
| The Farnsworth Fusor-A Portable Plasma Fusion Generator | Adam Parker | Dr. Mankey |
| Defect analysis in MOSFET oxide layers | Robert Hamner | Dr. Schad |
| Design and prototype tests of the calibration systems for the Double Chooz neutrino experiment | Ben Picone | Dr. Busenitz |
| Development of event reconstruction algorithms for the Double Chooz experiment | Ben Picone | Dr. Stancu |
| Measurement of the cosmic ray muon flux at the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, NM | Nao Mimoto | Dr. Piepke |