FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – College undergraduates from all over the world will be traveling to the Natural State to do summer research on astronomy, including studying black holes, water on Mars, spacecraft instrument design, moon rocks, asteroids and meteorites – all thanks to a grant awarded to the University of Arkansas by the National Science Foundation.

The program will be directed by Julia Kennefick, a University of Arkansas physics professor and a member of the space center, who led the team of professors that obtained the three-year $273,750 grant.

Students will work with an array of university professors in the fields of astronomy, engineering, biology, geosciences, chemistry and biochemistry.

Students working with astronomy professors Julia Kennefick, Claud Lacy and Daniel Kennefick will do research ranging from binary star systems to active galaxies and black holes.

University of Arkansas Professors Julia Kennefick, physics, and Derek Sears, chemistry and biochemistry professor.

Vincent Chevrier, a researcher in the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, and John Dixon, a professor of the geosciences, will direct students researching the behavior of water on Mars. Engineering professors Larry Roe, Alan Mantooth, Rick Ulrich and Po-Hao Adam Huang will supervise students in the design of space flight instruments. Timothy Kral and Mack Ivey, professors in the biological sciences department, will direct students in projects on terrestrial organisms that may be used as models for life on Mars. Lastly, Derek Sears, a chemistry and biochemistry professor, and Fang-Zhen Teng, a geosciences professor, will engage students in studies of meteorites, moon rocks and cometary dust particles. Other projects and professors will also be supporting the research to give students additional learning opportunities.

In addition to undertaking a research project and presenting the research in posters and oral presentations, the students will participate in trips to learn how space and planetary science research is performed elsewhere.

Outings are scheduled for the students to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Oklahoma Aquarium, the Badlands of Western Oklahoma, Space Photonics and a local observatory. The trips will enable the students to see how research is performed in a government base, a public outreach facility, in the field, in industry and in an observatory.

The program is hosted by the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, a partnership between six departments: biological sciences, chemical engineering, chemistry and biochemistry, geosciences, mechanical engineering and physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering, in close collaboration with the Honors College and the Graduate School.

The space center has been running the Research Experience for Undergraduates program for nine years. The funds from the National Science Foundation will support the program until 2011.

“The Space Center REU program attracts top-notch students from around the country and world, and this year is no exception,” Julia Kennefick said. “Our faculty members are pleased to have the opportunity to work on research projects in collaboration with such a fine group of students.”