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Interns are placed in organizations such as NIST, NASA, AIP, AAS, AAPT and APS, in the Washington, DC, area.

These organizations utilize the energy and diversity of aspiring students and contribute to their professional development through meaningful assignments, both relevant to the institution’s programs and in the advancement of physics or all or more mentors to guide the interns’ work and overall experience.

• Scholastic record and potential for future success
  
• Evidence of participation in SPS events and activities
  
• Evidence of experience in either science outreach/policy (for the SPS internships) or in science research (for the research internships)

Organizations that partner with SPS to mentor summer interns make a financial contribution to off-set program expenses. Our current partners include:

• John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts
• NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
• U of MD MRSEC (University of Maryland Materials Research
• APS (American Physical Society)
• OSA (Optical Society of America)
• AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers)

SPS also derives support for the internship program from the American Institute of Physics (AIP).

The awards and scholarship programs of SPS are made possible, in part, through generous contributions of Sigma Pi Sigma members and friends. Scholarships and awards are supported by income derived from designated funds that have been provided as gifts. In this way, the physics alumni, and especially the Sigma Pi Sigma members, contribute to the generations of students who follow them.

Nobel Laureate Supports Congressional Internships for Physics Undergraduates

COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND, 11 November 2009 — John C. Mather, who shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for his precise measurements of the primordial heat radiation of the Big Bang, is now turning his sights to a more Earthly ambition. He will spend part of his prize money to bring more physics and physicists into government.

Today, the John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts and the American Institute of Physics (AIP) announced the creation of the Mather Policy Intern Program, an endowed program that will send two undergraduate physics majors to Washington each summer where they will spend their break working in Congress or in other government offices where policy is formulated. "The aim of the program is to promote awareness of policy process among young scientists by directly engaging them in the work that goes on in the federal government -- work that is today as exciting as in any time in the past," explained Fred Dylla, Executive Director of the American Institute of Physics.

Read the Press Release

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