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Summer Intern Research Program

Since the summer of 2000, the JCA has been bringing both undergraduate and graduate students together with astronomers both within the Physics Dept at UMBC and at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. Summer internships typically last 10-12 weeks, and involve research-based study in one of the many areas of expertise of JCA and scientistics within the Exploration of the Universe Division at NASA/GSFC. These areas include Cosmology, Active Galaxies, Groups & Clusters of Galaxies, Stellar Astrophysics, Gamma-ray Bursts, and Detector Development. As noted on the details of interns from previous years the student's research often contributes to presentations at scientific conferences, and in the astronomical research literature. Since 2005, the JCA internship program has been consolidated under the general UMBC Physics Dept Internship Program.

It is anticipated the following projects will be available for students in 2006. For further details on an individual project, you should contact the mentor. Further details on the internship program in general, the application process and deadlines can be found at http://physics.umbc.edu/Undergraduate/interns.shtml.

"A toolbox for modeling the multiwavelength emission of quasar jets" Mentor: Dr. Markos Georganopoulos (markos@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov) UMBC Physics Room 415; Tel 410-455-8149 Location: on-campus at UMBC and at NASA/GSFC Prerequisites: Knowledge of either C or FORTRAN, and willingness to learn IDL. No prior knowledge of astrophysics is required, but an interest in learning some is. Details: Under guidance, you will work toward building a computer code that in its final form will calculate the synchrotron and inverse Compton emission from a decelerating relativistic jet. The code will be eventually become publicly available for researchers to use, so it has to be extremely well documented and clear. [...Further details]

"Jet Physics and Matter Content in Powerful Quasars" Mentor: Dr. Eric Perlman (perlman@jca.umbc.edu) UMBC Physics Room 416; Tel 410-455-1982 Location: on-campus at UMBC Prerequisites: Strong background in physics, and an interest in astronomy, astrophysics and basic research. Details: This project will test this new diagnostic of jet matter content using observations of two quasar jets with the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. The student will reduce data from these missions and compare them with models. [...Further details]

For more information, application procedure/forms etc see the UMBC Physics Dept Internship Program, or contact Dr. T. Jane Turner (turner@lucretia.gsfc.nasa.gov) UMBC Physics Room 412; Tel 410-455-1978