Since 1988, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the University of New Mexico (UNM) have offered a unique summer program in physics to a select group of advanced undergraduate students. The Summer School includes lectures, tutorials, a unique high-performance computing experience, and a full-term research project mentored by senior scientific staffs at UNM and LANL.
The school is supported in part as a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site of the Physics Division of the National Science Foundation. Since 2005 the Department of Defense has contributed to the support of the school as well, through its ASSURE Program, as does the LANL Institute for Advanced Studies. This joint venture of UNM and LANL effectively combines the unique strengths of both institutions in a professional and educational activity of special character.
The Summer School program has two components: a mentored research project and a seminar series. The project extends for the full ten-week term of the School and teaches the student scientific research skills. A mentor from the Lab or UNM directs the project; usually there is a ratio of one mentor to each student. The particular topics vary from year to year and are selected from both theoretical and experimental projects.
The seminar series consists of sets of lectures, given by staff and visiting scientists, that focus on hot topics in physics. These lecture sets vary in length from one to five one-hour class periods. The seminar series runs for eight weeks with at most two lectures per day for up to four days a week. Homework is very light.
On completion of this dual program, students receive three semester hours of credit from UNM for Physics 452 or 501. The grade depends on the accomplishments in the mentored research project and participation in the seminar series. The research project concentrates on investigating a specific scientific problem while the lectures look outward to explore fascinating new discoveries.