Spend a summer in Paris with all travel, lodging, and meals covered and also get a $6000.00 stipend
The Program - Summer 2025
Applications for Summer 2025 are now open
Applications will be accepted until January 15th, 2025
Applications must be filled out on the NSF ETAP site as well as a supplemental application on this site.
ETAP application link: https://etap.nsf.gov/award/7431/opportunity/10017
Supplemental application (this site): Click here to access
Participants will arrive in Ann Arbor on May 26th, Fly to Paris on Friday evening May 30th, Arrive in Paris on Saturday morning May 25th. Participants will travel home on July 30th
If you are interested in applying for the summer 2025 program, Please make sure you have a passport that is valid through the end of August 2025. We require this, at a minimum, by January 28th, 2025.
This is a hard deadline as we need to give the information to our French colleagues so they can do the required security checks and get access badges in time for the program in June.
The Optics in the City of Light REU program is funded by Physics Division of NSF through the Summer of 2025
One of the founders of the Optics in the City of Light REU, Gérard Mourou, just hearing that he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2018!!!
2025 Tentative Schedule
January 15, 2025 | Application Deadline |
May 26 - May 30, 2025 | Ann Arbor |
May 31 - July 30, 2025 | Paris |
This year the Optics in the City of Light Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) will offer 8 undergraduate junior level students the opportunity to spend 2 months in a variety of laboratories in Paris performing research with a wide range of ultrafast lasers. Optics, especially the new discoveries in Extreme Light, is one of the most exciting areas of science. Students in this program will experience strong collaborative science that is currently taking place between University of Michigan (UM) Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (GM-CUOS), University Paris-Saclay, Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Nationale de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA), Université Paris-Sud 11 Orsay, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, and l’Institut d' Optique Graduate School.
Students will spend one week in Ann Arbor at GM-CUOS for orientation, safety training, preparation for living in France, and immersion into the Ann Arbor laboratories of the REU faculty. Students will also learn basic lab skills as well as basic reporting skills. Students will begin the weekly reporting process that involves preparing a summary and analysis of the previous week’s work. Each student will also prepare a short presentation describing what they think they will be doing for their research in France. These presentations will be sent to the faculty involved in each project. In addition, each student will maintain an electronic notebook (a blog) that all team members will be able to access.