REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Gravitational-Wave Science in the LIGO Project (2026-2028)

This award supports the renewal of the existing Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site program associated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) project at California Institute of Technology. The project will support ten undergraduate students for ten weeks of summer research each summer for three years. LIGO provides an exciting opportunity for undergraduate students to participate in a cutting-edge astrophysics project and to help develop detectors with unprecedented precision. REU participants work closely with individual LIGO scientists on projects involving many aspects of detector technology, data analysis, and source modeling. Every student develops skills in scientific writing and communication, through preparation of a project proposal, progress reports, and a professional-quality presentation and report at the end of the summer. The LIGO REU program provides undergraduate students with a rewarding research experience at the frontiers of precision metrology, strong-field gravity, and observational astrophysics in which they make real and lasting contributions to a major scientific effort. Students work with and are mentored by professional scientists from LIGO Laboratory, Caltech theoretical astrophysics, and the global LIGO Scientific Collaboration and learn first-hand how large projects are organized and operate. They acquire new skills that are applicable in a broad range of technical careers. Depending on the projects, students might gain experience with optics, lasers, electronics, servo controls, mechanical systems, data analysis, numerical relativity, astrophysical source modeling, software development, artificial intelligence, quantum information science, or high throughput computing. All students gain experience participating in astrophysics research. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2547402 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Jonah Kanner | Institution: California Institute of Technology, PASADENA, CA | Award Amount: $455,626 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2547402 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2547402.html