Jayhawk Undergraduate Summer Training

Help the next generation of great Jayhawk minds go on to tackle some of physics’ greatest challenges and answer fundamental questions about our universe! 

The Department of Physics & Astronomy runs the Jayhawk Undergraduate Summer Training (JUST), a 10-week summer research-intensive educational internship. This real-world research experience is a critical component of a modern physics and astronomy education. However, a very real need of our Jayhawk researchers is the ability to be paid. Many of our students must juggle work and research, limiting their participation and progress. 

We are aiming to fund two research fellowships. Each fellowship will be $5,000 for the 10-week program, allowing Jayhawks to have a completely immersive summer research experience without juggling work. Students in the program will be paired with an advisor and research project. Past students have worked with department faculty on projects such as:

• measuring the masses of supermassive black holes in distant galaxies,
• characterizing exoplanets and their host stars,
• developing new materials to aid in quantum computing, 
• looking for neutrinos with detectors in Antarctica
• testing hardware performance for the Large Hadron Collider.

Students will also complete a computational bootcamp to learn the skills necessary for data analysis and attend weekly workshops on the research process. Donors will be kept up to date on research progress and will be invited to attend the Undergraduate Research Symposium (virtual or in person) on August 2, 2024, when the participants present the results of their summer research experience. JUST research! 

"I work with Dr. Elisabeth Mills studying extreme star-forming environments. This work has helped me stand out as a junior researcher leading me to be invited to collaborations using the James Webb Space Telescope and has propelled me to be a top candidate for graduate schools and summer internships.” --Keaton Donaghue, class of 2024