Graduate Student Internship Program

The Graduate Student Internship Program is intended for students who are in the early years of a graduate program at their university -- most often in their first or second year of graduate studies -- and who are interested in pursuing research in radio astronomy, in instrumentation development for radio astronomy, or in areas of electrical engineering or computer science that are closely related to radio astronomy observing techniques or data analysis.

Opportunities are available at all the main NRAO sites.

GBT	Green Bank, West Virginia which operates the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the world's largest fully steerable single-antenna radio telescope, a 100-meter class unblocked aperture for centimeter and long millimeter wavelengths,
EVLA	Socorro, New Mexico which operates the Expanded VLA (EVLA), a real-time 27-antenna aperture synthesis instrument for centimeter-wavelength imaging, polarimetry and spectrometry over baselines of tens of kilometers, and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), an asynchronous aperture synthesis instrument that extends these techniques to baselines of thousands of kilometers,
ALMA	Charlottesville, Virginia which hosts the North American ALMA Science Center, supporting science use of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) by North American astronomers, and the NRAO Technology Center, an engineering laboratory for the design and development of advanced instrumentation for centimeter and millimeter wavelengths - including antenna elements, low-noise detectors, mixers, amplifiers, integrated receiver packages and advanced digital processors for ALMA, for the EVLA, the VLBA, the GBT, and other instruments at the forefront of radio astronomy.

Students who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States, are enrolled in an accredited U.S. Graduate Program, or who are otherwise eligible to work in the United States, will receive a stipend. Some travel support and housing assistance may also be available. Appointments to this program may be made for durations ranging from a few weeks up to six months. Working under the supervision of an NRAO staff member, the successful candidate participates in one or more of: radio-astronomical research; instrument design, development, fabrication, and testing; or scientific programming. Graduate students at all levels in engineering, astronomy, physics, mathematics, and computer science are eligible for the program.

Examples of NRAO graduate interns and their research topics since 2006 are given here.

Students interested in pursuing graduate internships should first contact an NRAO scientist or engineer to discuss possible projects. See the NRAO Scientific Staff listing for general information regarding staff research areas and contact information. Further information on how to apply for the program can be obtained by contacting the Program Administrator. Students interested primarily in summer placements should apply initially to the NRAO Graduate Summer Student Research Assistantship program by its deadline.

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