You are here: American University College of Arts & Sciences Physics Student Resources
Scholarships & Internships
For AU Students
AU Career Center (AU students only)
The Career Center offers excellent opportunities through its CareerWeb and other resources.
Design and Build Lab
The Design and Build Lab is a digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, and experimentation space at American University. DaBL serves as an educational resource to all students, staff, and faculty of AU.
SPIN
Visit SPIN from a computer on campus:
infoed.org
Choose "Advanced Search," then select (click on) "Applicant Type" and choose "Undergraduate" or "Graduate Student." Select "Keywords" and either select "Science and Technology" or specific topic. More advanced searching is possible; play around. Remember to "Clear Search" every time, or the blanks will automatically refill.
External Resources
Society of Physics Students
SPS offers a variety of scholarships, internships, and awards. You do not have to be a member of SPS for all of these, but it may help.
The Physics Nucleus
This website is a clearing house for many of the major physics organizations (AAPT, AIP, SPS, and NSF-NSDL)
National Institute of Standards and Technology
This national laboratory is nearby. Surf their website or contact specific researchers:
Nist.gov
Science.Gov
This is a clearing house for science related government internships, etc:
STEM Undergrad Resources at science.gov
National Science Foundation
This link has scholarships and internships opportunities funding through NSF:
https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities
There may be other funding opportunities at NSF, so surf around.
DC NASA Space Grant Consortium
Headquartered right here at AU, the DC NASA Space Grant Consortium funds internships and summer research experiences at NASA: dcspacegrant.org/
Institute of Physics
This website has lots of resources: physics.org
Preparing for Graduate School
Online Resources for Graduate School
GradSchoolShopper.Com
Every piece of information publicly available about every graduate program in physics, astronomy and many related fields is here.
National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)
This link takes you to some program announcements for scholarships and other programs to fund your graduate education. There may be other funding opportunities at NSF, as well.
American Institute of Physics Career Center
Some graduate programs recruit graduate students here! You will have to "View All Results" and then "Search within Results" to find them.
American Society for Engineering Education
Another clearing house for undergraduate and graduate fellowships.
Graduate Record Exam (GRE)
The general test is required by most graduate schools in any discipline and the physics subject test is required by most physics graduate programs.
Physics-related Websites
American Physical Society
http://aps.org/ (The American Physical Society; the major professional society for physicists in the US (and often abroad too). Links to Physics Review Journals and other resources.
Teaching Physics and Teaching Resources:
http://aapt.org/ (American Association of Physics Teachers)
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/ (Facts for Teaching)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/hframe.html (Nice resource)
The open-source archive where a large fraction of physics papers are posted before publication:
News, Stories, and Fun
- Podcasts from the journal Nature
- Science Friday, a great weekly science radio show from NPR
- The American Physical Society publishes physics news stories on the hottest research for students and non-specialists
- The Skeptic's Guide, a podcast dedicated to promoting critical thinking and science literacy
- Science news from Digg
- Astronomy image of the day: great space-related image every day
- http://www.falstad.com/mathphysics.html
Recent Internship Sponsors
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg Campus
- Harvard Smithsonian-Center for Astrophysics
- National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergrads at various national universities including Drexel University, University of Houston, Baylor University, University of Toledo, Maria Mitchell Observatory, College of William and Mary
- Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- National Institutes of Health
Programs Where Recent AU Physics Graduates Enrolled
- Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan
- Biophysics, University of California at Berkeley
- Medical School, King's College London
- Astronomy and Astrophysics, U. Arizona
- Systems Engineering, U. Virginia
- Mechanical Engineering, I. Iowa
- Applied Physics, U. Northern Iowa
- Applied Math, Florida State
- Physics, U. Georgia
- Physics, Kent St.
- Physics, Johns Hopkins
- Physics, UC Davis
- Astronomy, U. of New Mexico
- Chemistry, Rice U.
- Electrical Engineering, Duke. U.
- Astronomy, U. Toledo
- Computer Science, American University
- Architecture, U. New Mexico
- Aeronautical Engineering, U. Arizona