Applying for a 2023 SPS internship?
Check out the weekly journals and see presentations from the 2022 interns!
Applications are now open!
Application Deadline: January 17, 2023
Quick links
Education and Outreach Positions
AIP History/NBLA Program Intern
Joint Hosts: AIP Center for History of Physics and Niels Bohr Library & Archives (1 available)
Are you curious about the human story behind scientific discoveries? Are you interested in bringing more attention to underrepresented voices in the history of science? The AIP Center for History of Physics (CHP) and the Niels Bohr Library & Archives (NBLA) are looking for an intern to develop educational resources and to conduct outreach on topics in the history of the physical sciences. In the first half of the summer, the intern will work with CHP to create new lesson plans and other resources for the AIP Teaching Guides on the History of the Physical Sciences. In the second half of the summer, the intern will work with NBLA to conduct outreach related to topics in the history of physical sciences. This outreach could take the form of a bibliography for related reading and research, posters/flyers/other graphic print announcements, bookmarks and other promotional materials, or Wikipedia edits on their chosen topic. The intern will also create an outreach plan to promote their exhibit on various outlets, including writing for the History Newsletter and/or Ex Libris Universum blog, as well as social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, or other outlets.
Qualifications:
- Demonstrated writing skills
- Interest in public outreach and informal education
- Strong creative skills, visual presentation and/or marketing skills
- Completion of at least two years of college physics
- Ability to effectively communicate scientific topics to pre-college students
Society of Rheology/Soft Matter Kitchen Intern
Host: Society of Rheology & American Institute of Physics (1 available)
Food is a universal route for the understanding and appreciation of soft matter physics and rheology. The Society of Rheology (a founding member of AIP) is looking for a summer intern to work with staff to create high quality, food-based content as part of the Soft Matter Kitchen online initiative. This initiative—currently hosted at www.arif.zone/home/kitchen—aims to use food as an avenue for explaining rheological and soft matter concepts in an exciting, approachable way. The content will eventually be incorporated into the Society of Rheology’s various outreach programs. The intern will assist in researching food materials along with relevant soft matter and rheological concepts, and in producing essays or video content. The intern will also have the chance to promote the project on various outlets, including an article for the Society’s biannual newsletter, as well as the Society’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. We are looking for an enthusiastic, curious researcher to help the Society showcase how rheology and soft matter are present in everyday life in ways that are both functional and fun.
Qualifications:
- Demonstrated writing and research skills
- Organized, self-starter
- Experience in project development or project management
APS Careers Intern
Host: American Physical Society (1 available)
The American Physical Society (APS) National Mentoring Community (NMC) is seeking a full-time Career Summer Intern who is interested in creating user-friendly interfaces to help connect minoritized and marginalized physics students with trained physics mentors across industry and academia. NMC Mentees will have access to a constellation of mentors that are aligned with their personal and professional interests and needs, regardless of geographic location, and mentors and mentees regularly meet virtually or in-person. The NMC program requires a seamless platform to match interested mentors and mentees. The intern’s specific tasks will include surveying mentors and mentees to identify their needs, developing a criteria that enables them to find their ideal match in the shortest and easiest possible time and automatization process. We are looking for an intern passionate about the intersection of DEI and technology trends, design, and devices to support the development process for the NMC interface.
Qualifications:
- Experience in programming python (strongly desired).
- Experience in survey design and implementation (desired).
- Demonstrated attention to detail.
- Strong organization, documentation, and prioritization skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to adapt to quickly changing schedules.
- Ability to work well with interdepartmental teams as well as independently.
- Understanding of issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
APS Education & Diversity Intern
Host: American Physical Society (1 available)
The American Physical Society (APS) is seeking a full-time Education & Diversity Summer Intern who is interested in learning more about the national data that drive many of our programs and how we promote cultural changes in physics. Specific tasks include updating national physics education statistics webpages. Additional tasks may involve developing materials, such as written articles, social media, or videos, to publicize department programs and related statistics and analysis. Other duties may be assigned.
Qualifications:
- Proficiency in Excel (required).
- Experience in Python preferred.
- Demonstrated attention to detail.
- Strong organization, documentation, and prioritization skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to adapt to quickly changing schedules.
- Ability to work well with interdepartmental teams as well as independently.
- Knowledge of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices and research (desired).
APS Public Engagement Intern
Host: American Physical Society (1 available)
Engaging the public with physics is a fun, meaningful, affirming way to share your physics knowledge. If this interests you, APS is looking for a Public Engagement Summer Intern. Candidates should share our goal of supporting the physics community in promoting widespread participation and engagement in physics. Responsibilities for this position include helping the team develop materials for our Public Engagement programs including, workshops and other resources geared towards physicists, on how to communicate with younger audiences and the general public.
Qualifications:
- Involvement in creating and/or implementing public engagement/outreach activities for diverse audiences (strongly desired).
- Knowledge of best practices for virtual, DEI-compliant instructional content (strongly desired).
- Demonstrated attention to detail.
- Strong organization, documentation, and prioritization skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to adapt to quickly changing schedules.
- Ability to work well with interdepartmental teams as well as independently.
SPS Science Outreach Catalyst Kit Intern
Host: Society of Physics Students, American Institute of Physics (1 available)
Are you passionate about sharing physics with the next generation? Do you like developing fun and educational science activities? SPS Science Outreach Catalyst Kits (SOCKs) are self-contained kits that feature creative, informative, and hands-on physics activities for SPS chapters nationwide to use in outreach programs in their communities. The SOCK intern will work on the summer 2023 SOCK from inception to completion by brainstorming, testing, designing, and refining activities. The intern will participate in several physics outreach events over the course of the summer, work on related physics and astronomy outreach materials, and will write a manual that will accompany the SOCK. The science theme for the 2023 SOCK will be determined in coordination with the selected intern.
Qualifications:
- Interest in public outreach and education
- Experience in outreach or education with K-12 students
- Ability to effectively communicate scientific topics to non-scientists
- Excellent writing skills
- Experience with science outreach or education preferred
AAPT Teacher Professional Development Programs Intern
Host: American Association of Physics Teachers (1 available)
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) seeks an SPS intern to help develop and disseminate resources for AAPT’s K-12 teacher professional development programs, including face-to-face and digital resources. The intern will have the opportunity to develop a suite of curricular resources, develop and moderate monthly webinars, craft blogs, learn about and contribute to federal education policy, and engage in various grant programs related to teacher leadership, heliophysics, the integration of physics and computation, advancing women in physics, and more. The intern will have the opportunity to attend the AAPT Summer Meeting and provide hands-on programming to high school teacher attendees. The intern will also support eMentoring and online learning by assisting with pairings of mentors and mentees, program evaluation, arranging for a webinar series, and streamlining online resources.
Qualifications:
- Demonstrated writing skills
- Interest in teaching, particularly at the high school level
- Excellent communication skills
- Some experience as a teaching or learning assistant or other classroom teaching, experience using technology in physics education, and familiarity with the Next Generation Science Standards preferred.
- Experience with computation, engineering, or project-based learning will be a plus.
Physics Today Science Writing Intern
Host: American Institute of Physics - Physics Today (1 available)
Physics Today, the world’s leading physics magazine, seeks an editorial intern for the magazine and its website. Responsibilities include writing about new studies in the physical sciences, doing research for stories under development for the magazine, and helping with PT’s social media accounts. This is a great opportunity for someone considering a career in science journalism.
Qualifications:
- Demonstrated writing skills
- Excellent communication skill
- Familiarity with Facebook and Twitter preferred
Science Policy Positions
AIP Mather Public Policy Intern - Capitol Hill
Host: American Institute of Physics (AIP) and Congressional Offices on Capitol Hill (2 available)
*US citizenship required
AIP Mather Public Policy interns are physics majors who spend the summer working in a congressional office on Capitol Hill. Interns provide support to representatives and staff as needed on a range of issues. While duties vary depending on assignment, previous Mather interns have attended and helped prepare for hearings and markups, written letters to constituents, gathered background materials related to votes, and provided general support to the offices. The AIP Mather Public Policy Internship Program is supported by the John and Jane Mather Foundation for Science and the Arts, and aims to promote awareness of and interaction with the policy process in Washington DC for undergraduate physics students.
Specific placements for Mather interns are arranged on an individual basis after they are selected. Previous AIP Mather policy interns have worked in member offices (including Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL 11), Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ 1), and others) and committee offices (US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology).
Qualifications
- Interest in science policy
- Basic understanding of how Congress and the US government works
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to work independently
- US Citizenship
AIP Mather Public Policy Intern - NIST
Host: American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (1 available)
The Office of Advanced Manufacturing at NIST runs a number of advanced manufacturing innovation programs. The AIP Policy Intern could anticipate working on the Manufacturing USA program, a $3 billion public-private partnership consisting of sixteen R&D institutes that each work in different technology areas and aim to create new industries in the United States. For more information, see www.manufacturingusa.com.
The office convenes and enables industry-led, private-public partnerships that focus on manufacturing innovation by engaging U.S. universities, state and local governments, and technology manufacturers. It uses an integrated whole-of-government advanced manufacturing initiative to facilitate collaboration and information sharing across federal agencies, including NSF, DOE, DoD, NASA and others. By coordinating federal resources and programs, the office enhances technology transfer in U.S. manufacturing industries and helps companies overcome technical obstacles to scale-up new technologies and products.
We anticipate that the AIP Policy intern would work on a mixture of our day-to-day policy needs and, if interested, could work on a summer capstone project as well. The intern could anticipate in-person or virtual visits to Capitol Hill and to other executive branch agencies. Our twin goals are for the American people to receive the benefit of the intern’s thoughtful, dedicated work, and for the intern to receive a valuable educational experience through exposure to science and technology policy making.
Qualifications
- Interest in science policy
- Excellent communication skills
- Ability to work independently
AIP FYI Science Policy News Intern
Host: American Institute of Physics (1 available)
Are you interested in how science informs public policy and how the government sets policies that impact science? Do you want to help communicate policy developments to scientists? If so, consider applying for a summer internship with FYI, an objective science policy news and resource center supported by the American Institute of Physics.
The AIP Science Policy News Intern will help the FYI team research, write, and distribute news articles about federal science policy debates and decisions. To improve the FYI team’s awareness of science policy developments, the intern will attend and summarize a wide variety of events, including congressional hearings, think tank discussions, and federal advisory committee meetings. The intern may also have the opportunity to be the lead author for one or more articles.
Qualifications
- Interest in science policy
- Interest in communicating policy developments
- Demonstrated writing skills
Science Research Positions
Science Research: NIST Internship
Host: National Institute for Standards and Technology (5 available)
Mentor: Josh Pomeroy
Title: Brrr… pump up the volume! Building a cryogenic audio amplifier
Description: A student can expect to learn measurement techniques for resistance, capacitance, voltages and currents in a cryogenic environment and use those techniques to measure the changes in properties of simple components between room temperature and 4 K. The student will then use the measured values at 4K to design, build and test simple circuits like filters, amplifiers and buffers.
Mentor: Martin Sohn
Title: Imaging of Quantum Entanglement
Description: The project aims to establish a single-photon based imaging metrology using entangled photons that will elucidate quantum behavior in photon-photon and photon-matter interactions. Research scope covers single photon measurements in imaging mode using single photon counting camera, generating polarization-entangled photon pairs, measurement of orbital angular momentums, measurements of fundamental issues in quantum physics including light-matter interactions. The student will be involved in the measurement of entangled photons using the single photon counting camera.
Mentor: Nanoscale Spectroscopy PI
Title: Spectroscopy of nanoparticles and monolayers
Description: In this project, the student will leverage the spectroscopic techniques at NIST to study interfaces of low dimensional materials like nanoparticles and monolayers with polymer films. These interfaces are expected to demonstrate interesting optoelectronic and magnetoelectronic behavior that could be leveraged for next generation devices. Duties will include learning and utilizing advanced spectroscopic techniques, building optical systems for sample characterization, and fabricating samples for testing via spin-coating and vapor deposition.
Mentor: Nanoscale Spectroscopy PI
Title: Fabrication and Characterization of Organic Semiconductors
Description: Organic semiconductors offer a number of potential advantages over conventional semiconductors, including low-cost processing and the ability to tailor materials by modifying molecular structure. For opto-electronic applications, they have particularly interesting and rich properties, including tightly bound excitons (bound electron-hole pairs) that interact strongly with light and remain bound at room temperature, with spin dynamics that depend sensitively on material properties and can be modified by applying a magnetic field. Recently, it was shown using time-resolved fluorescence measurements that organic crystals placed on 2D plasmonic nanoparticle arrays display modified exciton dynamics due to the formation of exciton-polaritons, hybrid modes that result from strong light-matter coupling. This phenomenon may enable new applications of these materials, but before it can be applied in a commercial setting, more fundamental research is needed. NIST’s strengths in nanofabrication and organic materials research make it well positioned to contribute, and the topic fits well within the Nanoscale Device Characterization Division’s mission. This will involve a combination of hands-on experimental work and data analysis.
Mentor: Andrei Kolmakov
Title: Ultrawide bandgap semiconductor device fabrication
Description: In this project the prospective SPS student will aid the in the fabrication and testing of ultrawide bandgap semiconductor devices (diamond). The student will get exposure to testing and tuning lithography protocols, contact fabrication, and deposition of gate dielectrics. In addition, the student will do routine electrical characterization of the fabricated devices to provide fabrication feedback.
Qualifications
- Interest in physics research
- Previous laboratory/measurement experience, especially in the area of electronics or materials
- Programming skills a plus
Science Research: Space Telescope Science (STScI) Institute Intern
Host: STScI (1 available)
Description: Galaxy formation and evolution are regulated by a complex interplay between star formation, chemical abundance and gas dynamics. Stars form from cool gas, which is either formed in situ in the galaxy or accreted from the circum/inter galactic medium or from the merger progenitors. Metals form in stars and are ejected into the interstellar medium (ISM) by subsequent supernova explosions. The metal-enriched gas can get dispersed in the ISM due to the internal gas dynamics of the ISM or get transported out of the galaxy via supernova-driven outflows or galactic winds. This project aims at probing the properties of the ISM via spectroscopic studies involving the emission lines emanating from the ionized gas component of the ISM. The project will have two components: one consists of compiling/analyzing the already available large literature dataset while the other one involves performing the spatially-resolved studies of star-forming galaxies via the integral field spectroscopic technique. This project will allow an enthusiastic student to get a first-hand experience in astronomical research, addressing key questions related to galaxy formation and evolution. All resources are in place. A suitable candidate should be willing to learn new skills and be enthusiastic about astronomy research.
Qualifications
- Interest in physics research
- Previous research experience
- Programming skills a plus