Research Experience for Undergraduates in Nuclear and Particle Physics at TUNL and Duke University

The 2025 REU Program application period will open on November  4, 2025.

The 2025 program dates will be May 18 - July 26, 2025. 

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs provide opportunities for students to participate in science and mathematics research at institutions throughout the country. REU programs are especially valuable for students attending academic institutions with very limited research opportunities. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the REU program at TUNL/Duke enables students to participate in research at the frontiers of nuclear and particle physics.

Students participate in a 10-week summer program combining research experience, lectures, and social activities. Students applying to this program have a choice of indicating their preference to work in one of two research components: (1) nuclear and particle physics at TUNL or (2) high-energy particle physics with the Duke High-Energy Physics (HEP) group. Students who are selected to work with the Duke High-Energy Physics program will spend about 6 weeks of the 10-week summer program at CERN. The REU students will conduct research under the supervision of faculty from the TUNL consortium universities: Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each student is fully integrated into a research group and works closely with graduate students, postdocs and other undergraduate students in the group and has opportunities to interact with other groups at TUNL and the High-Energy Physics group at Duke. The students are assigned well-defined projects that are often part of a larger research project or program.

The REU program provides a lecture series for undergraduate students on basic concepts in nuclear and particle physics to get everyone acquainted with the terminology used in the field.  A summer seminar series is also organized that covers a wide range of topics such as historical reviews of physics, applications of nuclear physics in art and archaeology, neutrino physics, dark matter, and many other subjects. 

In addition, various social activities on and off the research site allow for comfortable interaction between undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral research staff, and faculty. The TUNL Informal Lunch Talks (TILT) gatherings every week involve pizza and a presentation by either a grad student or postdoc. Attended by only students and postdocs, the TILT meetings are a great atmosphere for discussions both of physics and anything else.

TUNL REU Class of 2024

The TUNL REU Program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. PHY-2150118 (2022-2024).  The 2025 REU Program will be held pending renewal of funding from NSF.