This award will support the University of Texas at Arlington Nuclear Physics research group to host year-round, paid research internships for minority students in physics, particularly targeting candidates recruited from nearby Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).   The program supports a cohort of 4-5 trainees each year at the senior undergraduate level, beginning with a summer research experience and offering the opportunity for a second summer of research the following year and for paid research experiences in the intervening semesters. The program covers stipends, housing in UTA dorms, travel costs to and from UTA for the Summer, including one optional trip back home for a break in the middle of the internship, and support for travel to present results of research work at a conference.

Trainees will work on topics within UTA’s nuclear physics research portfolio, which is centered around our leadership of the US part of the NEXT neutrinoless double beta decay program. Students will receive extensive laboratory experience working on time projection chambers and barium tagging experiments as well as training in basic and transferrable skills such as coding, electronics, and vacuum system development, and machine learning under the mentorship of UTA’s team of nuclear physics researchers lead by PI’s Jones, Castillo, and Asaadi.  UTA is an R1 minority-serving institution, and a tiered research mentoring plan takes advantage of this natural benefit, pairing students with junior mentors among our diverse team of undergraduate researchers and graduate students, as well as with senior members among the UTA-NP PIs to provide a supportive environment to grow their research skills and sense of nuclear physics identity.