Spend a summer in Paris with all travel, lodging, and meals covered and also get a $5000.00 stipend
The Program - Summer 2017
We are no longer accepting applications for the 2017 program
Those who have applied will hear from us by the end of February.
2017 Schedule
| January 25, 2017 | Application Deadline |
| May 22 - May 26 | Ann Arbor |
| May 27 - July 31 | 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) Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS), 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. Teams of faculty (one from Ann Arbor and one from Paris) will each direct an REU student on a collaborative project.
Students will spend one week in Ann Arbor at 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.
CUOS, ENSTA, Université Paris-Sud 11 Orsay, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Ecole Polytechnique, and l’Institut d’Optique are among the premier ultrafast optics laboratories in the world and are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation. For its first 13 years CUOS was funded in part by an NSF STC. The director of that center was Dr. Gérard Mourou. Gérard and the members of the original center (half of our senior personnel) have had long-standing collaborations with LOA, the Louvre, and Ecole Polytechnique. Much of the research that has been developed at CUOS is also conducted at the institutions at Palaiseau. The world’s highest intensity focused laser is currently at CUOS but will be surpassed by the laser that is currently under construction at LOA. Both institutions have a large number of ultrafast lasers and diagnostic tools. The students will have access to all of the facilities in the French institutions as well as libraries associated with each institution and University of Michigan.
- You must be a junior about to enter your senior year at the end of the summer.
- You must be a US citizen or a green card holder.
- You must have your passport at the time the applications are due.
We seek to identify students who are passionate about science and discovery and who are eager to explore other societies and their cultures
Preference is given to students who attend institutions where research is not the primary focus. Under-represented minority students are strongly encouraged to apply.