Community Support
The Physics Frontier Center N3AS has undertaken a number of activities through which we engage the broader nuclear and particle astrophysics community, strengthen community infrastructure, and build a stronger workforce through research training and professional development.
One of N3AS’ goals is to strengthen the subfield’s general infrastructure through activities that engage the broader community, and by partnering with others to support their activities.
Postdoc and Student Professional Development
An important goal of N3AS is help young researchers interested in multi-messenger astrophysics to advance in the field. Our current activities include:
An annual summer school for advanced graduate students and beginning postdoctoral researchers interested in theory, experiment, or observations. The school is designed to provide students with a broad overview of the field, helping them see the connections of their work to that of others. It also creates an opportunity for the students to form networks that, in some cases, can last for the duration of their careers. N3AS covers the local costs (room, board, and transportation to/from the airport) of participating students, in addition to lecturer costs. Participation is dominantly from the US, though international participation is growing.
2023 summer school cohort
An undergraduate introduction-to-research program in which N3AS postdocs and certain faculty work with undergraduates, giving them a research home and supporting them in their pursuit of a Physics BA. The program includes many scientific and social activities designed to increase student knowledge and confidence. An important target group is students who transfer from community colleges at the start of their junior years, who often need both academic and social support as they enter a very competitive research university environment. The program currently supports approximately 20 UC Berkeley students, and will begin expanding to two other sites in the coming year. As the transfer student population is significantly more diverse than their four-year counterpart, the program can contribute to making physics more representative of the broader community. The “product” of this program is a larger and more diverse pool of post-BA astrophysicists who continue in graduate school, join industry, or find other paths that utilize their research training. The program operates at both the Berkeley and University of Washington sites and includes, in addition to the standard academic year program, opportunities for students to continue their research in the summer, on a part-time basis.
Postdoctoral model: The N3AS model gives postdocs unusual freedom to pursue their physics and build collaborations of most interest to them. The postdocs have the freedom to work with N3AS faculty members, or with non-N3AS researchers they select. They are given substantial travel budgets to enable them to sustain long-distance collaborations. The goal is to create a group of broadly educated group of postdocs who, on leaving N3AS, are ready to compete for faculty positions in the increasingly multi-disciplinary fields of nuclear and particle astrophysics.
While the postdocs are distributed over 13 institutions, the program is structured so that the postdocs act as members of one group, interacting weekly via Zoom journal clubs and seminars, and meeting periodically at N3AS and other workshops and schools, and at the N3AS annual meeting. Both collaborative and social ties are formed.
Postdoctoral professional development: N3AS has a postdoc-run professional development committee, with faculty advisors, to help the students gain the professional skills they need to advance in the field. This includes best practices in preparing and presenting talks, creating CVs, and interviewing. As the postdocs are the mentors for many of our undergraduates, they also gain experience research supervision and teaching. N3AS provides a variety of resources to help the postdocs gain the skills they need, including sponsoring participation in various “best-practices” in-person teaching short courses and maintaining an archive of online resources.
Scientific outreach and support
N3AS activities are open to the broader scientific community. We are also eager to partner with others, adding our resources to those others may have to strengthen the infrastructure that supports our community. Examples include:
Our bi-weekly Zoom seminars in which we invite outside speakers to present their latest work, which is then broadcast to N3AS members and a larger group of affiliates.
Prepared by Anna M. Suliga
Example of the articles N3AS Fellows release monthly, describing recent research at a nontechnical level. This allows N3AS to reach a wider audience, and gives the fellows experience writing in this format.
Popular summaries of our research, designed for beginning students and the public. Each month one of our research papers is rewritten at a Scientific American level, then posted prominently on our web site, to promote broader understanding of what we do and why it is exciting. We also maintain a archive of popular science articles written by others.
Our workshops: All N3AS workshops are open to the community. We also welcome collaboration with others, and in the past have jointly sponsored activities with the INT and KITP. Workshop organizers have a budget that allows them to support the local costs of community participants. Workshop suggestions are reviewed by the N3AS executive committee, which welcomes input from N3AS members and the community, and from other institutions (INT, KITP) interested in joint sponsorship of activities.
Experimental interactions
An important focus of our workshops is to increase interactions between the theoretical community, experimentalists, and observers. A factor in workshop selection is the degree to which they engage experiment. A recent example is the N3AS sponsorship of Solar Fusion III, the third decadal review of the nuclear physics of hydrogen burning stars. There was very strong participation by the international community of experimentalists who make precision measurements of low-energy nuclear decays.
Community Building
In its day-to-day operations, seminars, and workshops, N3AS welcomes the participation of the broader scientific community. We strive to create an environment where non-N3AS members feel welcome. Our activities are guided by our Code of Conduct. There are also more specific ways N3AS is trying to contribute:
While selection to our undergraduate research program, BURN, is based on student academic records and the alignment of student research interests with those of the available mentors, we give preference to transfer students when students are equally qualified. Currently slightly more than 50% of BURN students are transfer students (who make up 33% of the junior class). Many of these students have not had previous opportunities to do research nor do they have existing contacts with faculty who hire students. Our program provides a badly needed introduction to research, increasing the chances that the students will reach their degree goals and become contributing members of the scientific workforce. In addition to the research experience the students acquire by joining BURN (or the analogous N3AS INTURN program at the University of Washington), these programs also provide important social support. This is important for all of our students, but especially so for transfer students, who on arrival are inserted into classrooms where they may know none of their fellow students. BURN inserts these students into a program where they can interact with some of their peers and with a supportive group of mentors.
We help students who participate in BURN with career advice, including advice and encouragement for those who become interested in continuing their education in graduate school.
N3AS also supports ULAB, a student-organized and student run program to provide research experiences for students just beginning their physics training. The students are organized intro teams of 5-6, who then select a research project, decided on program of work, complete that program, then produce a poster or paper on their conclusions.
The team leaders are advanced undergraduates with research experience — some of the mentors are veterans of BURN. The ULAB program supports about 60 student researchers. The faculty advisor is N3AS Senior Investigator Dan Kasen. This year, thanks to a generous donor, an Innovation Laboratory for undergraduate users was completed. This new facility will serve as a staging area for ULAB projects, and will allow the program to add additional students.
Beginning in 2023, N3AS became a supporter of the REYES program, Remote Experience for Young Engineers and Scientists. REYES, created as an online program during COVID, has become very popular, drawing many thousands of participants from over 100 countries. The program is accessible to high school students, but in fact draws participants from all ages.
Public Outreach
N3AS makes a presence in the community at relevant events throughout the year.
Tri-Valley Innovation Fair 2025
Photo by Ron Essex
N3AS tabling at the 7th annual Tri-Valley Innovation Fair, with over 3,000 attendees experiencing a variety of hands-on activities and exhibitors.
Science Palooza 2024
Photos © 2024 SJSU, photos by Robert C. Bain.
N3AS hands-on activities demonstrating a black hole, and experiencing a total eclipse.
Science Palooza 2022
All day community festival promoting STEM among families and minority communities at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley. Viewing solar spots and understanding what dark matter is, with Sherwood Richers, Matt Pyle and students.
Additional Events
Astro-night, a community event organized with UC Berkeley Astronomy Department, using their fleet of telescopes. Talk by N3AS mentor Adrien Bayer on exoplanets. N3AS students volunteered to set up telescopes for the public.
Software
Software developed under N3AS auspices is by policy open source. We maintain a directory of available codes on our web site, along with the name of an N3AS contact for further help.
Website
The N3AS website not only serves as an organizational tool for the N3AS collaboration, but also is our most important portal to the broader astrophysics community and to the general public. Its archives include past seminars, lectures presented at our summer school, indexed directories of all N3AS publications, posters presented by our undergraduates, and Scientific American-level descriptions of both N3AS and other research intended for beginning students and the general public.
It is also an important part of our effort to keep past N3AS, RIKEN, and CPB Fellows connected to N3AS. Our web page is continually updated with tracking information on past Fellows. The web page reflects the fact that we regard past fellows as present members of N3AS.
