Laura1013

As a proactive physics student, each winter I would create a list of summer internships I was interested in applying to. This was a frustrating task, since there are so many, others' lists were often out-of-date, none were organized together in a good directory, and I often found out about good ones too late. My classmates had the same problem.

Two years ago, I created a large listing of physics-related internships and summer programs (also engineering- and math-related) and emailed it to the Physics, Mathematics, and Engineering Departments of my university. Last year, I decided to upload a comprehensive listing onto the internet for the world to use as a resource.

You can find the listing at Astromiror: Student Opportunities.

I have personal experiences with two of the opportunities listed. I thought I'd share them with you.


The summer after my freshman year of college, I was frustrated. I was (incorrectly) told by someone at my school's career center that freshmen didn't get internships. I resigned to a summer of working a retail job (I got a job selling shoes at a department store). But I didn't give up all hope. I contacted a college near my parents' house (where I was spending the summer) and asked their Astronomy Department if they needed any students for the summer. They said yes!

The first position was a very minor volunteer research job comparing the properties of main sequence stars like our Sun. I worked with a professor to do some calculations and create some plots using Microsoft Excel. There wasn't much for me to do, but I enjoyed getting into real research.

About a month into the summer, another professor mentioned that he could support me with Space Grant funds (NASA - National Space Grant Consortium Web Sites) to work on research with him. I studied cataclysmic variables, mostly modeling the ultraviolet emission from the accretion disk and the star itself. I learned Unix and gained experience with satellite data. It was a great learning experience for a 19-year-old! Through the Space Grant office, I was funded for a second summer.


The second internship program I was lucky enough to participate in is the NASA Academy program (http://academy.nasa.gov/), the most prestigious internship NASA offers, the summer after my junior year. This isn't a typical internship – it's part research job, part leadership training, and part crazy fun activities. A little more than half the time, I worked with mentor scientists at NASA, who were just fantastic. The rest of the time, I was with a group of fellow Academy interns doing extra activities. Officially, we traveled to and tour different NASA centers and technology facilities (a local facility every week, distant facilities 3 or 4 times a summer), attended Space Camp, hosted guest speakers nearly every evening, attended weekly lunch meetings with VIPs, and worked with a local museum to create educational materials. Unofficially, we hung out, ate out, went skydiving, visited tourist attractions, and had a blast.

I loved my research and my mentors so much, I continued the research during my senior year and into grad school. This internship directly caused my admission into my grad school. I love this program! I returned the following summer to work as a student staff member for the program. I'm still active in the alumni association.


Have you participated in any physics-related internships? Share your experiences here!