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Scholarships & Internships

For AU Students

AU Career Center (AU students only)

The Career Center offers excellent opportunities through its CareerWeb and other resources.

Design and Build Lab

The Design and Build Lab is a digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, and experimentation space at American University. DaBL serves as an educational resource to all students, staff, and faculty of AU.

SPIN

Visit SPIN from a computer on campus:

Choose "Advanced Search," then select (click on) "Applicant Type" and choose "Undergraduate" or "Graduate Student." Select "Keywords" and either select "Science and Technology" or specific topic. More advanced searching is possible; play around. Remember to "Clear Search" every time, or the blanks will automatically refill.

External Resources

Society of Physics Students

SPS offers a variety of scholarships, internships, and awards. You do not have to be a member of SPS for all of these, but it may help.

The Physics Nucleus

This website is a clearing house for many of the major physics organizations (AAPT, AIP, SPS, and NSF-NSDL)

National Institute of Standards and Technology

This national laboratory is nearby. Surf their website or contact specific researchers:

Science.Gov

This is a clearing house for science related government internships, etc:

National Science Foundation

This link has scholarships and internships opportunities funding through NSF:

There may be other funding opportunities at NSF, so surf around.

DC NASA Space Grant Consortium

Headquartered right here at AU, the DC NASA Space Grant Consortium funds internships and summer research experiences at NASA:

Institute of Physics

This website has lots of resources: 

Preparing for Graduate School

Online Resources for Graduate School


Every piece of information publicly available about every graduate program in physics, astronomy and many related fields is here.


This link takes you to some program announcements for scholarships and other programs to fund your graduate education. There may be other funding opportunities at NSF, as well.


Some graduate programs recruit graduate students here! You will have to "View All Results" and then "Search within Results" to find them.


Another clearing house for undergraduate and graduate fellowships.


The general test is required by most graduate schools in any discipline and the physics subject test is required by most physics graduate programs.

Physics-related Websites

American Physical Society

(The American Physical Society; the major professional society for physicists in the US (and often abroad too). Links to Physics Review Journals and other resources.

Teaching Physics and Teaching Resources:

(American Association of Physics Teachers)

(Facts for Teaching)

(Nice resource)

The open-source archive where a large fraction of physics papers are posted before publication:

News, Stories, and Fun

  • The on the hottest research for students and non-specialists
  • , a podcast dedicated to promoting critical thinking and science literacy
  • : great space-related image every day

Recent Internship Sponsors

  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg Campus
  • Harvard Smithsonian-Center for Astrophysics
  • National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergrads at various national universities including Drexel University, University of Houston, Baylor University, University of Toledo, Maria Mitchell Observatory, College of William and Mary
  • Carnegie Institute of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
  • Department of Health and Human Services
  • Space Telescope Science Institute
  • National Institutes of Health

Programs Where Recent AU Physics Graduates Enrolled

  • Electrical Engineering, University of Michigan
  • Biophysics, University of California at Berkeley
  • Medical School, King's College London
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics, U. Arizona
  • Systems Engineering, U. Virginia
  • Mechanical Engineering, I. Iowa
  • Applied Physics, U. Northern Iowa
  • Applied Math, Florida State
  • Physics, U. Georgia
  • Physics, Kent St.
  • Physics, Johns Hopkins
  • Physics, UC Davis
  • Astronomy, U. of New Mexico
  • Chemistry, Rice U.
  • Electrical Engineering, Duke. U.
  • Astronomy, U. Toledo
  • Computer Science, American University
  • Architecture, U. New Mexico
  • Aeronautical Engineering, U. Arizona