Application Link for Summer 2025
Application Opens: Nov 26, 2024
Application Closes: Feb 6, 2025
For summer 2025, the Cornell Nanoscale Facility (CNF) will be hosting two closely related REU programs: 1) CNF NNCI REU Program at Cornell, and 2) the REU program of SUPREME (an SRC JUMP 2.0 center) at both Cornell and MIT. The two programs are described below, and to the extent possible, participants in both programs will be considered as one cohort.
The Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility (CNF) is a national user facility that supports a broad range of nanoscale science and technology projects by providing state-of-the-art resources coupled with expert staff support. CNF has been serving the science and engineering community since 1977! Over 700 users per year use the fabrication and characterization resources of CNF to build structures, devices, and systems from atomic to micrometer length-scales, with applications across the range of physical and life sciences. The CNF cleanroom in Duffield Hall has one of the largest sets of nanotechnology resources in the U.S. academic community.
The CNF-NNCI REU program (funded by NSF NNCI-2025233) takes full advantage of this diversity of research and offers projects encompassing chemistry, nanoscale electronics, materials processing, physical sciences, engineering, and life sciences, with a strong inter-disciplinary emphasis. The CNF REU program is conducted as part of a broader nanotechnology REU program conducted across many of the sites in the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), a national network of advanced nanotechnology user facilities. Participants in the CNF NNCI REU program will present their results at the NNCI REU Convocation at the University of California-San Diego in August at the end of the program.
SUPREME (https://supreme.cornell.edu/) “Superior Energy-efficient Materials and Devices”, is a multi-university microelectronics research center sponsored by SRC, the Semiconductor Research Corporation. SUPREME researchers explore both fundamental new science and novel engineering technologies, with the aim of driving the semiconductor industry in the next 3–15 years, while also training the next generation of scientists and engineers to work across disciplines. The SUPREME REU program, funded by NSF (EEC- 2349310), will take place at both Cornell and MIT, two of the partners in SUPREME. Students placed at Cornell will work with Cornell faculty in ECE, Physics, and Materials Science with considerable activity in the CNF Duffield Hall Cleanroom. Students placed at MIT will work with MIT faculty in both faculty laboratories and the MIT.Nano fabrication facilities.
In all cases, students will engage in hands on research activity, be trained in a variety of advanced instrument techniques, and be provided with a range of professional development opportunities.
A common application (the NSF ETAP application) will be used for both programs leading to a common applicant pool. (link to be provided).
Specific project descriptions are not available at this time but will include a variety of microelectronic processing and materials projects (Cornell and MIT) as well as other nanomaterials, nano processing, and biomedical related projects (at Cornell only).
We encourage applications from undergraduate students from two-year colleges, students with little prior research experience, students from groups that are underrepresented in the STEM fields, and students who are the first in their family to attend college. Relevant majors include physics, chemistry, materials science, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and chemical engineering, to name a few.
These programs will run for ten weeks from the first week of June through the second week of August. Applicants must be available to start on June 2, 2024.
Participants will receive a $7,000 stipend, plus housing and reasonable travel expenses. The program covers all reasonable research expenses. Full participation in the ten-week program -- trainings, convocations, final reporting, and program evaluation -- is mandatory. The programs are open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are undergraduates at U.S. universities. Graduated seniors are not eligible.
Applications will be accepted until Feb. 6, 2025. Applications will require personal statement, transcript, and 1 reference letter.
Applications will only be accepted through the NSF ETAP common application- one application will cover BOTH the CNF and SUPREME programs. You may indicate your program/site preference (or both) and your technical areas of interest (e.g. microelectronics, biomedical, etc.) on the application. Applications will be processed as one group, and students will be assigned to specific projects based on their experience and technical and geographic preferences.
CNF has been successfully conducting REU programs since 1997 with over 400 prior participants. Technical reports from prior projects are available via the individual year links in the REU sub-section menu.
Please address any questions not answered here to Lynn Rathbun, LCR2@cornell.edu, subject: REU Question.
Past Year REU Programs
