Undergraduate Research in Physics at UMBC is not only possible, but strongly encouraged
Undergraduate Research in Physics at UMBC is not only possible, but strongly encouragedTypes of Opportunities Available
Many students work on individual research projects, in collaboration with faculty members and other qualified mentors. Such research is usually performed via
- a Special Topics course for credit (via PHYS450 or PHYS499)
- as a paid research assistant or intern.
The department also offers one student a year a Donald N. Langenberg Undergraduate Research Award to support undergraduate research.
Many of the undergraduate research projects in the department have been supported by the university’s Undergraduate Research Award (URA). Students in the department also participate actively in the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD).
Recent Undergraduate Research Projects
| Year | Student | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | Katherine Carver | “Analyzing Supermassive Black Holes in Minor Mergers to Characterize Merging Effects” Advisor: Dr. Adi Foord URA Scholar |
| 2025-2026 | Aria Tauraso | “Optically Strain-Tuning Coherent Magnons in van der Waals Magnetic Semiconductors” Advisor: Dr. Geoffrey Diederich URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Olivia Chiarini | “Top-of-Atmosphere Data Reduction Pipeline for the UMBC Observatory Using Landolt Standard Fields” Advisor: Mr. Roy Prouty, CSST, Observatory URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Robert Coggins | “Optimal driving in two-qubit annealing: The Landau-Zener model” Advisor: Dr. Sebastian Deffner URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Andrew Dvorak | “Searching for Black Holes Ejected by Gravitational-Wave Recoil with the Hubble Space Telescope” Advisor: Dr. Eileen Meyer URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Yohannes Girma | “Flux ropes and their properties during storm-time and typical solar wind conditions” Advisor: Dr. Brandon Burkholder, GPHI URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | John Melles | “Direct Radiative Effects of Dust Over Desert Regions from Observations of EMIT Mission” Advisor: Dr. Zhibo Zhang URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Jonathan Miller | “Signatures of True Quantum Chaos in Energy Level Statistics” Advisor: Dr. Sebastian Deffner URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Michael Moody | “Vertical Distribution of Urban Pollution over the Amazon Rainforest” Advisor: Dr. Henrique Barbosa URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Jackson Moore | “Diurnal cycle of cloud cover in the Amazon rainforest from an all-sky imager” Advisor: Dr. Henrique Barbosa URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Azzan Porter | “Comparison of Foreshock Magnetic Fluctuations Observed by MMS, Juno, MAVEN, and Cassini” Advisor: Dr. Brandon Burkholder, GPHI URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Kevin Carbajal Rodriguez | “Shortcuts to Adiabaticity with an Adiabatic Gauge Potential” Advisor: Dr. Sebastian Deffner URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Aria Tauraso | “Thermodynamics of an Entangled Photon Gas in an Engine Cycle” Advisor: Dr. Sebastian Deffner URA Scholar |
| 2024-2025 | Paul Wampler | “Relative Velocity Distribution of Spectroscopic Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Major Mergers” Advisor: Dr. Adi Foord URA Scholar |