Princeton-UTokyo Undergraduate
Research Internships in Astrophysics/Cosmology 2024
We are pleased to solicit applications for the 2024 Princeton-UTokyo Research Internships in astrophysics and cosmology. Two undergraduate students (3rd year as of the 2024 academic year) will be selected from the University of Tokyo.
The program will begin in Summer Break 2024, in which the intern will visit the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences for 7 weeks in Aug/Sept 2024. Each student will be assigned a research mentor at Princeton, with whom they will carry out an original research project. The research project will be continued remotely from Japan over the Spring Break of Feb/March 2025, during which the intern can either work from home or visit Kavli IPMU in the UTokyo Kashiwa Campus to continue working on the same research project. The total program duration is therefore 12-13 weeks, which allows for a substantial research experience.
The projects available cover the full range of astrophysics done at Princeton University, including experimental and computational plasma astrophysics, searches for and constraining the nature of exoplanets, studies of Milky Way structure, galaxies, and gravitational lensing with the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey, cosmological constraints from the Cosmic Microwave Background, and many other topics. The research carried out here will not carry any course credit at UTokyo, but is intended to provide research experience and will likely provide an advantage when applying for graduate studies in relevant fields.
All expenses are covered, including return airfare to the USA, accommodation in Princeton, and daily allowance. During the remote segment in Feb/Mar 2025 based at Kavli IPMU, the interns will be given a commuting allowance to IPMU.
This is a joint program by the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) at the University of Tokyo, and the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences, generously funded by the University of Tokyo/Princeton University Teaching and Research Collaboration.
Eligibility: Undergraduate students at the University of Tokyo who will be 3rd year in 2024 (i.e. 2nd year in 2023). We encourage but do not require formal English qualifications (TOEFL, IELTS), but interns are expected to already be fluent in both spoken and written English. Knowledge of basic Python programming would be an advantage.
Application Deadline: 17:00 Friday 2025 February 9
Application Process: Prepare the following materials as a combined PDF, and submit it to the application page. (Please sign-in using your UTokyo e-mail)
- Brief C.V. (1 page, in English)
- Academic Transcript
- 400-500 word personal statement (in English) introducing yourself, your intellectual interests, and why you might be suited to this internship
- IELTS / Eiken / TOEFL transcript or equivalent (optional)
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a brief video interview.
For further enquiries, contact Prof. Khee-Gan Lee (kglee at ipmu.jp)