PROGRAM ALLOWS STUDENTS TO EXPERIENCE SPACE SCIENCE

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Arkansas-Oklahoma Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, is one of many campus hosts of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program this summer. The Center hopes to create a place where students can come to explore research in their favorite areas of the cosmos.

The REU runs ten weeks in the summer, allowing 12 undergraduates from all over the country to work with faculty mentors who specialize in a particular field of space and planetary research. The researchers’ expertise ranges from asteroid composition to potential life on Mars and from geological processes on the surface of Mars to locating extra-solar planets. The students work closely with the faculty and also on their own, developing a research project and presenting it to the center at the end of the ten weeks.

The program also includes a trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, as well as a journey to Eagle Picher in Joplin, Mo., where the students can see space technology in an industrial atmosphere.

"When I saw the poster for this program," said Tahirih Motazedian, "I thought it was akin to one of those 'Work from home and earn a million dollars’ ads, because it just seemed too good to be true. Now I'm here, and I still think it's too good to be true!"

Motazedian, a geophysics major from Oregon, analyzes geological features of Mars. "I spend my days looking at images of the Martian surface...I'm in heaven!" she exclaims.

This summer’s undergraduates come from Maryland, Texas, Nebraska and Tennessee as well from Arkansas. Their diverse university studies include biology, chemistry, electrical and computer engineering, geology, physics, and math. The center’s main goal is to form multitalented, interdisciplinary students who work together with others in different fields to solve problems and advance scientific research.

The center and the program are funded by the National Science Foundation.

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