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:

arxiv.org

News, Stories, and Fun

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