Program Description

Research Experience for High School Students

This is an intensive seven week program for gifted high school students which combines formal instruction with independent research and allows students to design original research projects with guidance from Garcia Center faculty, students, and staff. Students can continue during the academic year in the Mentor Program, which allows them to plan a research schedule with a faculty mentor throughout the year. Pre-arranged transportation and class schedules are coordinated with local school boards to enable students from a large geographical area to enroll in the program. Almost three hundred high school students have participated in the mentor program since its inception.

The students have consistently won recognition for their research through national competitions (LISEF, NYCSEF, NYSSEF, ISEF), published in refereed journals, been awarded patents, inducted into the National Young Inventor's Hall of Fame, and been accepted to universities or professional programs of their choice.

Research Experience for Undergraduates

The Garcia Program hosts a research program for college undergraduate and rising seniors. The REU program is a seven week summer program where undergraduate students work in teams with high school students,high school teachers, graduate students and post docs on specific research projects of their interest. Many of the REU participants were former high school students who returned for multiple summers. Some students prefer to continue working on the same project, with the goal of eventual publication, while others opt to sample different projects and gain experience in diverse fields.

Research Experience for High School Teachers

The Garcia Center for Polymers, funded by the National Science Foundation for research and education on Polymer Engineering has four openings in the Research Experience for High School Teachers (RET) summer program. The summer program lasts 7 weeks, starting the last week of June and pays a stipend. Candidates can work independently or join existing research groups doing research on polymer blends, composite materials, polymer/inorganic surfaces and interfaces, protein and DNA surface interactions, polymer recycling, polymer materials engineering, theoretical modeling, x-ray and neutron scattering at Brookhaven National Laboratory, electron, x-ray and scanning force microscopy, Infrared spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. Candidates will publish in refereed research journals and attend professional conferences.