<p>I’m applying for college this year, and I’m trying to find colleges that do research in these fields. I have already applied to The University of Alabama at Huntsville. Could someone please tell me a couple of other colleges that are involved in this sort of research? I’d be very grateful. (I’m applying as an incoming freshman; I’m a senior in high school now)</p>
<p>I am sure google can answer your question better than anyone on here. Do some research.</p>
<p>Sense check: you are applying to an UNDERGRADUATE program. The critical time to be zeroing in for specific research projects is graduate school.</p>
<p>I’m wanting to do undergraduate research; I’m not expecting to hold a payed position, but rather gain experience and get to learn more about the field/what I’d be doing (also get to know the professor I’d be working under for my PhD). It would also help me figure out if I even want a PhD. </p>
<p>I did do multiple google searches, but all that has been coming up have been NASA articles. A couple of things on UAH came up, but that is most likely because I live in Alabama. (different people get different results on google searches). </p>
<p>“What colleges have a nuclear propulsion lab” and “Universities researching nuclear propulsion” did not give me any results, granted I only looked at the first page.</p>
<p>It’s highly unlikely you’d stay at the same school for your PhD as undergrad. Many departments don’t allow it, and at best it’s frowned upon. Your best bet will be to find a school that fits you well, look into doing summer research at a NASA facility (or find an REU at a school that offers this sort of research), and then think about it for grad school. You don’t necessarily need to do research in a particular subsubfield in order to figure out if you want to go to grad school. All of my experiences in undergrad were in different subfields from what I do now, and I didn’t really like most of the labs I was in, but I knew I did want to go into a career of research.</p>
<p>Electric Propulsion schools:
UMich - Gallimore
Princeton - Choueiri
TAMU - Staack
MIT - Dunno the dude’s name
GaTech - Walker</p>
<p>not sure about nuclear</p>
<p>Hmmmm… I didn’t know that getting a graduate degree at the same school as an undergrad was frowned on like that (it shows how much I know about things). I suppose I better ask each individual college their policy on that; I know UAH and MIT each have PhD students that have obtained their undergraduate degrees from there. </p>
<p>Thank you guys, and thank you DoubleD for the list.</p>
<p>Of course there are exceptions to the rule about undergrads getting PhDs at the same institution, but it is very rarely done and not considered a good idea.</p>
<p>Excuse my ignorance, but why is it not a good idea? (Sorry for a question that probably has an obvious answer.)</p>
<p>Expand your contacts, see different ways to approach problems (or view the field, etc), and give another way of showing the good stuff you’ve been doing your own and not a result of catching someone else’s coattails.</p>
<p>I think the “going to a different school for grad school” idea is more relevant if you’re wanting a faculty position after graduation.</p>
<p>Yes, but I think schools are reluctant to accept their own undergrads into PhD programs, too… I think the feeling is that it is an awful lot of years to spend in one academic environment to do both your undergrad and your graduate work at one college. The expectation is that you have more variety in your experiences, more variety in the people you would come into contact with, and generally be less ‘stale’ than one can become with only one set of experiences/frame of reference.</p>
<p>A search of Naviance yielded these schools.</p>
<p>University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, CA
University of Florida Gainesville, FL
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Idaho State University Pocatello, ID
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, IL
Kansas State University Manhattan, KS
University of Maryland, College Park College Park, MD
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI
Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla, MO
University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM
North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC
Oregon State University Corvallis, OR
Pennsylvania State University, Abington Abington, PA
Pennsylvania State University, Schreyer Honors College University Park, PA
Pennsylvania State University, University Park University Park, PA
Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY
South Carolina State University Orangeburg, SC
University of Tennessee, Knoxville Knoxville, TN
Texas A&M University College Station, TX
Wilberforce University Wilberforce, OH
University of Wisconsin, Madison</p>
<p>Thank you Gavianna! I appreciate it!</p>
<p>You may want to contact a few professors at these schools, to see if they have any active research in nuclear propulsion. Just send them an e-mail (or call) about your interest and if the school is doing any research. Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s UF was very active in it (as part of SDI). In fact, one of my undergrad classes was “Intro to Space Nuclear Power”. It was a lot of fun. :)</p>
<p>And I should point out that if you’re interested in working in this field (Nuclear Space Power) as an engineer, a PhD is not a requirement. However, it is something of a niche field, so don’t be surprised if your interest change/expand, once you’ve been in college a few years. Then again, you could be part of the team that manages the first manned mission to Mars!</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>University of Washington does some plasma propulsion research.</p>
<p>Yes, the UW-Seattle Aeronautical Engineering Dept has a huge plasma generator charged with several 8’ tall capacitors in their basement which they use for plasma propulsion research. The plasma generator is also used for nuclear fusion research.</p>
<p>[UW</a> A&A - Research Labs](<a href=“http://www.aa.washington.edu/research/hitsi/]UW”>http://www.aa.washington.edu/research/hitsi/)</p>
<p>UW-Seattle is also involved in an off-campus research project in conjunction with a private corporation that is studying plasma-based nuclear fusion propulsion: [Rocket</a> powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars | UW Today](<a href=“http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/04/04/rocket-powered-by-nuclear-fusion-could-send-humans-to-mars/]Rocket”>Rocket powered by nuclear fusion could send humans to Mars | UW News).</p>
<p>Thank you everybody! I have a good list of colleges to look at, evaluate, and apply to now, thanks again for all the help!</p>
<p>If you have an exceptional profile, then you should consider applying to Caltech. The jet propulsion lab, co-owned by Calteh&NASA, is very big on propulsion (as you can see from the name) and they definitely have a research group in electric propulsion, plasma physics, etc…</p>
<p>I know Princeton’s electric propulsion program has been going downhill the past few years. Everyone I’ve talked in this field to seems to say that UMich currently has the best program.</p>