Undergraduate Research
The University of Idaho fosters a dynamic and vibrant undergraduate research community, where opportunities for you to thrive are abundant and diverse. Many of our students are in the lab within the first semester of being on campus. If you are motivated and have the drive and ambition to conduct formal research, capture and report on your findings, working with your adviser, you’ll find research opportunities on campus. For example, the Department of Biological Sciences encourages undergraduate research and annually offers five undergraduate research awards, including the Curtis and Mary Sundquist Award and four departmental awards to support these activities. To get a better idea of what undergraduate research is really like, read how Roxanna Hickey, as a junior studying microbiology, is working with her team to conduct critical cancer research.
The University of Idaho NSF/REU Program is another great way for undergraduate students to build on their classroom knowledge. In this program physics students particpate in top-rated research projects. These projects are managed by stellar College of Science faculty members and graduate students. For more information about getting involved in the NSF/REU Program, contact Professor Wei Jiang Yeh at wyeh@uidaho.edu.
Check out some past research projects, organized around professor's interest areas. You can learn more by visiting our physics Faculty and Staff pages:
- Barnes- Astrophysics and Planetary Physics, Exploration of Saturn's Moon Titan
- Bergman-UV Photoluminescence and Raman Spectroscopy of Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors and Nanostructures
- Berven- Electron/Phonon Transport and Electro-Mechanical Effects in Discrete Nanosystems, Nano-Device Physics, Nano-Sensors
- Machleidt- Non-Perturbative Renormalization of Chiral Effect Field Theory
- McIlroy- Nanowires and Nanosprings - Mechanical and Electrical Properties andtheir applications in biology, sensors, and hydrogen cells
- Qiang- Size Dependent Magnetic Properties of Nanoparticles, Nanoparticle-Assembled Materials, and their applications in Biomedicine and Environment
- Sammarruca- The Nuclear Equation of State: Applications to Terrestrial and Astrophysical Systems
- Yeh- Spintronics and Magnetic Tunneling Junctions
- Ytreberg- Computational and Theoretical Studies of Biological Molecules
- Bart- Study of Lunar Landscape