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The Homer Neal Research Abroad Fellowship Program is an opportunity for undergraduates at the University of Michigan to work with notable physicists and gain first-hand experience at CERN, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. CERN is located just outside of Geneva, Switzerland and hosts an average of 12,000 researchers. Homer Neal Fellows will participate in an ongoing research project from the wide range of research performed at CERN, such as Higgs boson analysis, supersymmetry searches, neutrino experiments, detector development, accelerator physics and computing, as well as many other physics and engineering projects. Selected students will become part of an active CERN research group engaged in real ongoing analyses.
Professor Homer Neal, Ph.D., was a prominent high-energy physicist, educator, and leader in higher education. This program is funded by a generous endowment left by Dr. Neal. Professor Neal initiated and coordinated the US NSF CERN REU program for which about 15 students from US universities are selected to participate in research at CERN every summer. He also pioneered multiple study-abroad programs for US undergraduate students to study at CERN.
Professor Neal has had a long distinguished career in experimental particle physics and served as President of the American Physical Society. He has pursued his research at SLAC, Fermilab, and for the past 20 years at CERN with the ATLAS experiment. Professor Neal established and led the Michigan group making critical contributions to building and operating the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer and to the discovery of the Higgs boson. He is among the first to realize the distributive and collaborative nature of modern particle physics research. He pioneered in the research in collaborative tools and led the initial design of the computing architecture of the ATLAS experiment. Dr. Neal also served as interim president emeritus, vice president emeritus for research, Samuel A. Goudsmit Distinguished University Professor of Physics, and professor of physics in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan.
To read more about Professor Neal and his legacy, please click the link .
ELIGIBILITY
Active undergraduate students at the University of Michigan are eligible.* An application is required to be considered for this opportunity. Students do not have to be a declared physics major, but they should have a career interest in physics. Students can apply anytime beginning in their sophomore year. If a student participates during a Fall or Winter semester it is important to note that no academic credit is granted, so students will need to withdraw from the University during the term in which they are abroad.
*We recommend that international students meet with the International Center before deciding to apply as there may be visa implications.
FUNDING
Students accepted into the program will receive a stipend of $10,000 that will be used towards their airfare and living expenses while in Switzerland. There are no program fees.
DATES
We are pleased to offer this program for Summer 2025! The dates will be May 15, - August 5, 2025. Applications for the summer program are due no later than 12pm on January 20, 2025.
Questions about the program can be directed to physics.sso@umich.edu
