This is still work-in-progress, but here you will find resources for students and postdocs, acknowledgments, and importantly, the lab’s Code of Conduct. If you are a prospective student or postdoc and there is something you would find useful to add to this page, please contact Shankari.
- More experimental atomic physics at UM
- Resources for undergraduate students
- Resources for graduate students
- Resources for postdocs
- Acknowledgments
- Rajagopal Lab Code of Conduct
More experimental atomic physics at the University of Michigan
There are lots of other groups at the University of Michigan doing really cool atomic physics experiments, no pun intended. Find them here:
- Laser Cooling and Trapping Group (Georg Raithel, Physics Department)
- Kuzmich Research Group (Alex Kuzmich, Physics Department)
- Quantum Optics Lab (Alex Burgers, ECE Department)
Resources for undergraduate students
Research opportunities
- National opportunities
- National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates - AKA NSF REU.
- Amgen Scholars Program
- Opportunities at UM Physics
- National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates - better known as NSF REU.
- UM Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program - better known as UROP. Can apply for different semesters.
- PHYSICS 415 - Course in independent study. Please contact Shankari if you would like to pursue research during a school semester.
- PHYSICS 496/497 - Honors thesis course. Please contact Shankari if you would like to pursue a thesis project in the lab.
- Department-funded summer research - Depends on available funding; typically a call goes out in late March/early April. Email the address (linked) with questions.
Fellowships for prospective graduate school
If you are interested in pursuing graduate school in a STEM field, most programs will pay your tuition as well as a salary while you are a student, so you should not need a fellowship. However, they are nice to have - independent funding often improves your freedom in graduate school.
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program - Better known as the NSF GRFP. Can apply once as a senior undergraduate, and once in either your first or second year of graduate school, not both.
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship - Better known as NDSEG. Can apply as a senior undergraduate, first year, and second year of graduate school.
- Department of Energy Computations Science Graduate Fellowship - Better known as DOE CSGF. Can apply as a senior undergraduate and first year in graduate school.
- Churchill Scholarship - A 1-year master's program in the UK between undergraduate and graduate studies. Must be nominated by UM.
- Gates-Cambridge Scholarship - Supports 1-year master's program between undergraduate and graduate studies or PhD study at Cambridge University.
- Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program - if you are applying to Stanford University.
Resources for graduate students
Links
- UM LSA Physics graduate program
- UM graduate housing resources
- DEI resources in the UM Physics Department
- DEI resources from LSA
- Dean of Students incident reporting and help
Fellowships
Please note that these are largely only available to US citizens, dual citizens, nationals, or permanent residents.
- National graduate fellowships
- Hertz Fellowship - Can apply as a senior undergraduate and first year in graduate school.
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program - Better known as the NSF GRFP. Can apply once as a senior undergraduate, and once in either your first or second year of graduate school, not both.
- National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship - Better known as NDSEG. Can apply as a senior undergraduate, first year, and second year of graduate school.
- Department of Energy Computations Science Graduate Fellowship - Better known as DOE CSGF. Can apply as a senior undergraduate and first year in graduate school.
- Fellowships through UM
- The UM Physics Department offers some fellowships to incoming graduate students, and makes some available for current graduate students. You can find a list here.
- The UM Quantum Research Institute plans to begin to offer graduate fellowships- watch that space.
Resources for postdocs
coming soon
Links
Fellowships
Acknowledgments
Land acknowledgment
This lab sits on the campus of the University of Michigan. I acknowledge that The University of Michigan, named for Michigami, the world’s largest freshwater system and located in the Huron River watershed, was formed and has grown through connections with the land stewarded by Niswi Ishkodewan Anishinaabeg: The Three Fires People who are the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Boodewadomi along with their neighbors the Seneca, Delaware, Shawnee, and Wyandot nations. Today we benefit from access to land and resources originally acquired through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids, a coercive and unfulfilled treaty which promised reciprocity, mutual respect, and access to education.
I acknowledge that the historical origins and present location of the University of Michigan were made possible by indigenous people’s cession of lands under coercive treaties common in the colonization and expansion of the United States. I also acknowledge that this country would not exist if it wasn’t for the free, enslaved labor of Black people. I honor the legacy of the African diaspora and Black life, knowledge and skills stolen due to violence and white supremacy. I am committed to supporting underrepresented communities at the University of Michigan however I am able.
Funding acknowledgment
The work carried out in this laboratory is currently supported by
- The University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
- The University of Michigan Department of Physics
Website acknowledgment
This website is based on the Jekyll theme academic, built by LeNPaul, and was modified with a great deal of help from Shiva Rajagopal.
Rajagopal Lab Code of Conduct
Experimental AMO labs are collaborative places. Part of the fun of joining one is the way you get to work with others intensely, bouncing ideas back and forth, and you often spend more time with your labmates than you do with anyone else in your life. The times in my career when I have had the most productive and joyous scientific experiences have come when the lab has been a place where everyone could come in and have fun doing science together. It is very important to me that my lab is such an environment, where creativity and curiosity are fostered and encouraged within the process of doing research together.
To that end, it is my hope that anyone joining my lab will contribute to a positive working environment. My expectations from students and postdocs are the following. You do not have to know how to implement all of these skills upon arriving in the lab, I merely ask that you have the openness to developing these skills and a positive attitude.
- Expressing mutual respect
- Listening actively to others’ feedback
- Behaving and communicating in a professional manner
- Learning to productively address conflict when it inevitably arises. Passive aggression heavily discouraged.
- Asking others for help
- Offering what help you can when asked
- Learning to split up work and resources effectively
- Listening to, and considering, ideas no matter where they come from. An undergraduate’s voice should be valued just as a PI’s is.
- The only boilerplate part of this: treating everyone in the lab as an equal, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, or educational background. Everyone should have access to the exploration of science without fear of harassment or discrimination, and they will not be tolerated.
We are all students of physics in this space, and it needs to be a place where we can all feel comfortable expressing what we do and do not understand without fear of judgment, and with a hope of learning more about the world.