Want to get involved in research? Wondering how to go about it? First, you need to get an advisor. If you already know what kind of research you want to be involved with, check the research page or the faculty page to find a possible advisor in the area you like. If you don't know what research you might be interested in, schedule an appointment with our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. David Meyer, or with Prof. Michael Schmitt. They can help facilitate your search for an advisor. Next, contact the potential advisor! Whether in person, or by e-mail, or by telephone, there is no reason to be shy about talking to the faculty. (Most faculty are delighted to talk about their research!) For examples of research that other undergraduates have undertaken, check these links: Honors Research in Physics & Astronomy, or Undergraduate Research in High-Energy Physics, or the Northwestern NASA Summer Research Program. Researchers Wanted! Here are projects just waiting for the right student. Contact the faculty for more information. Venkat Chandrasekhar Fabrication of nanostructures by electron-beam lithography This project involves fabrication of metallic nanostructures using the electron-beam lithography facility in the Mesoscopic Physics Group laboratory, with feature sizes down to 50 nm. Techniques include operation of a scanning electron microscope, spin-coating silicon wafers, deposition of metals using thermal and electron-beam evaporators, and if time, interest and skills permit, measuring the resulting nanostructures in our cryogenic inserts. Students should have an interest in working with a variety of equipment. Venkat Chandrasekhar Design and construction of control electronics for a scanning probe microscope This project will involve design and construction of electronics to run a home-made scanning probe microscope. The microscope itself works and has been used at cryogenic temperatures, but we would like to enhance the electronics and interface to the control software. For those students with an interest in programming and computer interfacing to instruments, the control software is also being upgraded. Don Ellis Undergraduate position in simulations of the properties of new materials The Materials Theory Group uses atomistic simulations and Density Functional Theory to study the structure and properties of new materials. Current projects include bioceramics, catalytically active oxide surfaces, multilayer and nanoparticle composites, and macromolecules. Undergraduates with some background in computation, or LINUX, or computer graphics are welcome to join one of the on-going projects. Bill Halperin Development of Heat Exchangers for Achieving Ultra-Low Temperatures This project involves laboratory work in the development of heat exchangers that will be used for achieving ultra-low temperatures (below one millikelvin). It will involve "hands-on" experimental work. Vicky Kalogera Models of X-Ray Binary Stars This project is investigating populations of X-ray binary stars in old, elliptical galaxies. In the coming months, NASA's X-ray space observatory (Chandra) will be collecting observational data on point sources in two nearby elliptical galaxies. Our group is developing theoretical models of X-ray binaries (i.e., stellar systems involving neutron stars or black holes accreting matter from their binary companion) for the purpose of interpreting the anticipated observations and investigating the origin and evolutionary history of these cosmic X-ray sources. John Ketterson Red Blood Cells on an Optical Lattice Optical forces are usually very small. But when a laser beam is tightly focused on a submicron-sized particle, the force can be large enough to manipiulate the particle. We have an apparatus that brings together four beams at a small angle, and which interfere with each other to make an optical standing wave in the 1 - 10 micron range. We have some red blood cells that we would like to try to assemble on this optical lattice using laser "tweezers". These cells are of course dead (they have no nucleus and in any case are in a solution), but the long-range goal is to see if we can assemble living cells on a lattice and study how they interact with each other -- do they divide more quickly or slowly when they are in close proximity? John Ketterson Cell Growth Experiments We make films of the bioceramic hydroxyapitite. This is a material that is used to coat bone and dental replacements because the associated cells (osteoblasts) like to grow on it. We currently give our films to other research groups for cell growth experiments, but it would be an interesting and fun project to grow the films here, and would provide an undergraduate with an opportunity to learn about the commercially very important physics of thin film deposition. This project needs a student with sufficient interest and biological knowledge to work independently. Tamar Seideman Theoretical Research in Molecular Physics and Nanochemistry Our group carries out theoretical research at the broad (and exciting!) interface between physics, chemistry and materials science. One area of interest is coherent control of matter by light and of light by matter, where we use laser pulses to control systems ranging from isolated diatomic molecules to complex solutions to plasmonic waveguides. Another area is strong-field manipulation of external molecular modes, where we use lasers to align molecules in space and control their translational motions. A third area of active interest is current-driven dynamics in molecular-scale junctions, an emerging sub-discipline of molecular electronics with potential applications in fields such as molecular machines, surface nano-chemistry and materials nano-processing. Another active research area is the observation of ultrafast phenomena. Farhad Y. Zadeh Analysis of star formation in the Galactic center This project involves the use of sophisticated image processing techniques to extract information from data taken by radio telescopes and/or the Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope. We hope to shed light on how it is that newborn stars can exist in the innermost region of the Milky Way, where there is a giant black hole whose massive gravity should inhibit star formation. Students should have an interest in computers, but programming experience is not necessary. |
