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Internships/Summer School links

 

Summer internships help you gain valuable research experience, transferable skills and make contacts within an area you may want to go into in the future. They can also be a great way to help you decide what you want to do post-university and get a taste of what working in research/industry can be like. Here we list the major internship/summer school opportunities we are aware of both within the UK and abroad. Hopefully this will make the internship hunt a little less daunting!

 

Further advice can be found at our workshop run in Michaelmas term.​

Astrophysics / Space Technology:

 

  • Space Placements in Industry, SPIN (UK): https://sa.catapult.org.uk/spin/

    • Large range of space-related internships in different groups 

    • One of our committee members had a great experience doing a SPINternship in the Centre for Electronic Imaging (CEI) at the Open University in CCD sensors for space telescopes

    • Range of deadlines depending on specific project (placements open around February)

 

  • The Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Programme for Summer Students, LEAPS (Leiden, Netherlands): https://leaps.strw.leidenuniv.nl/ 

    • Astronomy/astrophysics

    • Research project in collaboration with a research scientist from Leiden Observatory or ESA/ESTEC

    • 10 weeks

    • Deadline usually end of January

 

 

  • Astrophysics Summer Programme for International Research Experience, ASPIRE (Amsterdam, Netherlands): https://aspire.science.uva.nl/ 

    • Astronomy/astrophysics at Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy (https://api.uva.nl/?cb) 

    • Open to students on MSc programmes

    • 6 weeks

    • Deadline usually February

 

  • Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, SURF, at LIGO (USA): https://labcit.ligo.caltech.edu/LIGO_web/students/SURF/ 

    • At Caltech or one of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) observatory sites

    • All continuing undergraduate students (i.e. who will be students next year) may apply. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

    • 10 weeks

    • Applications open November-January

 

  • Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, MPIA (Heidelberg, Germany): https://www.mpia.de/en/careers/internships/summer 

    • Research and development in astronomy

    •  MPIA work on a variety of topics including exoplanet searches, the census of the Solar neighbourhood, the study of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, and the detection of the most distant quasars.

    • Deadline usually early January

 

 

 

 

 

Synchrotrons/ Particle Physics/ Accelerator Technology:

 

  • CERN (Geneva, Switzerland): https://careers.cern/summer

    • Particle physics

    • A very prestigious international programme run by CERN

    • 8-13 weeks

    • When applying note the application advice on their website (here) 

    • Deadline usually January

 

  • Fermilab, Helen Edwards Summer Internship (Chicago, USA): https://internships.fnal.gov/he-internshipfnal-gov/

    • Accelerator Science (whilst it doesn’t state this on the website the internship is with the accelerator directorate!)

    • An amazing opportunity to experience research in the US

    • 10 weeks

    • Deadline usually January

 

  • Particle Physics

  • 8 weeks

  • Deadline usually February

 

https://indico.cern.ch/event/1243861/

  • 1-week hadron collider physics school (lectures and tutorials)

  • Aimed at Masters/ advanced Bachelors students

  • Deadline usually March

 

students)

 

 

 

 

 

  • IFJ PAN Particle Physics Summer Student Programme (Poland): https://ppss.ifj.edu.pl/ 

    • Particle physics summer school

    • The aim is to introduce the participants to particle physics (no prior knowledge is required)

    • 4 weeks

    • Deadline usually May (registration opens in March)

 

X-ray and Neutron facilities:

 

  • PSI, Centre for Neutron and Muon Sciences (Villigen, Switzerland): https://www.psi.ch/en/cnm/practical-training

    • Neutron scattering and imaging as well as instrumentation

    • 2-3 months

    • Further information and contact details under specific projects on their website

 

 

 

  • ISIS Summer Student Placement (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Harwell, Oxfordshire), Daresbury Laboratory (Warrington) or The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (Edinburgh) ,  UK): https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Summer-Student-Scheme.aspx 

    • Range of projects with ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

    • 6-12 weeks

    • Applications open in January​

Placements within the University of Cambridge:

General physics-based research internships within the UK:

 

 

General physics-based research internships outside of the UK:

  • Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships, SURF, programme (California, USA): https://sfp.caltech.edu/undergraduate-research/programs/surf 

    • Some Cambridge colleges (St. John's, St. Catherine's, Corpus Christi, or Pembroke) have an exchange programme with Caltech

    • Range of areas of physics

    • 10 weeks

    • Deadline usually February (opens November)

 

  • Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD (Germany): https://www.daad.de/rise/en/rise-germany/ 

    • Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) programme

    • Range of science and engineering projects across Germany

    • 10-12 weeks

    • Deadline usually end of November

 

  • University of Tokyo Research Internship Programme, UTRIP (Tokyo, Japan): https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/utrip/ 

    • A range of physics projects can be found on the above website

    • 6 weeks

    • Applications open late November-early January​

Industrial Placements:

 

 

  • STEP (UK): https://www.step.org.uk/ 

    • A UK wide programme that connects undergraduates with smaller, innovative, businesses

    • Large range of opportunities in smaller businesses

 

 

  • Arm:  https://careers.arm.com/internships 

    • Semiconductor and software design company 

    • Internship opportunities around the world, many in France

    • Rolling applications (therefore encourage early applications)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defence:

 

Further webpages with lists of physics-related internships:

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