2023 GBO summer students on the GBT (Image from GBO Flickr)
Brenne Gregory (white hat) with 2023 GBO/NRAO summer students on the GBT receiver deck (Image by Victoria Catlett)
2022 GBO summer students enjoying the sunshine on the GBT Observation Platform (Image by Victoria Catlett with editing by Catalina Zamora)
2022 GBO/NRAO summer students by the GBT during the Summer Student Bootcamp at GBO (Image by Jill Malusky)
2022 GBO/NRAO summer students with Will Armentrout (white hat) on the GBT (Image from GBO Flickr)
2023 GBO/NRAO summer students learning about radio astronomy during the Summer Student Bootcamp (Image from GBO Flickr)
2022 GBO/NRAO summer students with mentor Emily Moravec (white hat) on the GBT (Image from GBO Flickr)
2022 GBO/NRAO summer students during the Summer Student Bootcamp at GBO (Image by Jill Malusky)
2022 GBO summer students standing very still for a long-exposure photo while stargazing (Image by Victoria Catlett)
Are you an undergraduate student looking for a Summer research experience at one of the world’s leading radio observatories? Then apply for the GBO/NRAO Summer Student Research Assistantship[1] and select Green Bank as a preferred site on your application!
Applications for Summer 2024 are OPEN, and they are due on February 1, 2024.
The Overall NRAO Program The Green Bank Summer Student Program is one of three sites for the GBO/NRAO Summer Student Research Assistantships[1]. To apply to be a GBO summer student, you must apply through their portal and select Green Bank as one of your preferred sites. The other two sites are at the NRAO headquarters in Charlottesville, VA and at the Very Large Array (VLA) in Socorro, NM.
All GBO/NRAO Summer students (including those in Charlottesville and Socorro) will spend one week in Green Bank for a Summer Student Bootcamp at the beginning of the Summer. In this program, students get to meet their peers from the other sites, learn the foundations of radio astronomy, tour the GBO facilities, and take data with some of our telescopes. Later in the summer, GBO students will take a weekend trip to the NRAO headquarters in Charlottesville.
The GBO Site Green Bank Summer students typically do their day-to-day research from the Jansky Lab on site, home to most of our scientific, software, and engineering offices. The nature of said research will depend on the project, but we will provide frequent workshops, talks, and check-ins to ensure that everyone has the skills and support they need.
The Green Bank Summer research program has two primary funding sources: The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)[2] program and GBO’s Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation (PING)[3] program. Students admitted to GBO for PING will have the same experience as the GBO REU students except that for 2 weeks of the summer, they will pause their research activities to do full-time mentoring for the PING attendees (rising 9th graders). You will indicate on your application if you would like to be considered for a PING-funded position.
More information about the Green Bank program can be found on our site-specific page[4] of the NRAO website.
Internet Green Bank is situated in two radio quiet zones[5] which minimize Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) for our telescopes. Although this means we don’t have cell service or WiFi, people here can still connect to the internet! If you come here, you’ll just need to bring Ethernet adapters so your devices can connect to our wired internet. We also get GPS signals, so you can use Google Maps provided you load the route beforehand.
Housing Summer students live together in a large house about a mile away from the observatory. There are typically 2 students per room. The house is equipped with Ethernet, landline phones, and a kitchen complete with dishes and cooking utensils.
Driving The student house is within walking distance of both the observatory and a small grocery store. However, having access to a car becomes a necessity for traveling anywhere else. We will provide transportation to and from the airport, but beyond that, day-to-day transportation is up to the students. Typically, a few students drive to Green Bank instead of flying and will use their car to carpool to work, the grocery store, etc. Most staff members would also be happy to help if asked, so you’ll be just fine if you don’t have a car here.
We cannot provide a list of available projects in advance. In your personal statements, we encourage you to tell us what general work at GBO interests you. You are welcome to identify individual GBO staff members you would like to work with, but we cannot guarantee any particular person’s participation at this time.
2023 All 2023 GBO/NRAO Summer Student projects can be found here[6].
Student
Mentor(s)
Topic
Final Report
Vincent Andrews
Jim Jackson
Star-Forming Clouds
–
Samuel Barton
Victoria Catlett & Kasey Purcell
Characterizing Local RFI Sources in GBT Data
–
Charles Burton
Larry Morgan & Natalie Butterfield (NRAO)
Examining Galactic Bar Dust Lanes in the Milky Way
–
Lauren Dyzarz
Anika Schmiedeke
Gas Kinematics of Young Star-Forming Regions
–
Suzanne Eisenberg
Victoria Catlett & Kasey Purcell
Characterizing Local RFI Sources in GBT Data
–
Mary Rickel
Emily Moravec
Investigating Radio-AGN in Merging Galaxy Clusters
–
Lukas Summers
Steve White & Jason Ray
GBT IF Bandwidth Expansion
–
Mahpara Tasnim
Pedro Salas
The GBT L-band Drift Scan Survey
–
Kasey Wei
Thomas Chamberlin
Interactive Dashboard for GBT Archive Data
–
2022 All 2022 GBO/NRAO Summer Student projects can be found here[7].
