Applications Being Accepted for Physics & Arts Summer Institute

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- High school students who love physics and the arts are invited to apply for the University at Buffalo's second annual Physics & Arts Summer Institute for high school students, sponsored by the Department of Physics in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

The free program, running from July 9 through Aug. 3, will involve high school students in communicating the excitement of physics to the public, according to Doreen Wackeroth, Ph.D., assistant professor of physics at UB, who developed the summer institute with funding from a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER grant she received.

Students who are in 10th, 11th or 12th grade may apply.

Up to eight students will be accepted; the application deadline is May 15.

Students enrolled in the program will build an exhibit describing the purpose of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for the Physics & Arts Exhibition in the UB Department of Physics that honors, celebrates and de-mystifies the discipline for the general public. When it comes online in the near future, the LHC, located outside of Geneva in Switzerland, will be the world's most powerful particle accelerator, designed to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

Under the direction of Craig Uhrich, who teaches science at Depew High School, and James O'Leary, a UB undergraduate student majoring in physics and a "graduate" of last year's institute, students in the Physics & Arts Summer Institute will design explanatory materials, such as posters, Web pages, audio tours and other materials, to go with the exhibit that they develop.

They also will attend lectures by UB professors on particle physics and on the arts, take a one-day field trip to Fermilab's Particle Accelerator near Chicago, learn how to conduct scientific research online from UB's science librarians and lead members of the public on tours of the physics exhibit once it is complete.

High school physics students and teachers interested in the institute should apply at ubexpo@gmail.com or contact Wackeroth at (716) 645-2017 ext. 175.

More information is available at http://www.physics.buffalo.edu/pasi.