Hosting American interns at Paris-Saclay
The Optics in the city of light NSF REU program
Optics in the City of Lights REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates students) is a program funded by the National Science Foundation (CNRS) and the U.S. Department of Defense since 2009.
This program allows young American students to participate in a 2-month internship in the field of optics in the laboratories of Université Paris-Saclay.
Since 2009, 115 students have been hosted in the laboratories of several French institutions:
- École Polytechnique
- Institut d’Optique Graduate School - IOGS
- ENSTA Paris
- ENS Paris-Saclay
- Université Paris Sud / Université Paris-Saclay
- CentraleSupélec
As such, 32 students from various American universities have already been able to spend time in the Light, Matter and Interfaces (LuMIn, ex-LPQM) and Supramolecular and Macromolecular Photophysics and Photochemistry (PPSM) laboratories at ENS Paris-Saclay.
Since 2018, ENS Paris-Saclay administers this program on behalf of the Université Paris-Saclay.
Course of the internship
As part of this program, selected students benefit from a week of immersion in the world of research at the University of Michigan to prepare them for the work expected in France. Each student is also required to maintain an online blog to track their stay and progress in their work.
At the end of their stay, a video presentation of the results will be made by all the students to the American coordinator of the program, Steve Yalisove, the students themselves and the French supervisors, followed by a question and answer session.
Arrival of the class of 2021/2022
After 2 years of absence due to the Covid-19 epidemic, the new class of 2021/2022 students arrived at ENS Paris-Saclay on Monday, May 30, 2022 for a welcome drink, organized by the International Relations Department, with a presentation of ENS Paris-Saclay and the University Paris-Saclay. They met their internship supervisors and enjoyed a visit of ENS Paris-Saclay.
Photo caption (from left to right): Fiona Gerente (DRIE, University of Paris-Saclay), Emmanuel Becquart (DRIE, University of Paris-Saclay), Jordan Coney, Victoria Ayomikun Adebayo, Alondra Stafford, Malhar Tamhane, Madelyn Johnson, Alejandro Garcia, Rishabh Kothari, Steven Yalisove (University of Michigan), Britanny Karki, Philippe Delaye (LCF, IOGS)
Reception in the laboratories
The 8 students will spend 2 months in the laboratories of IOGS, École Polytechnique, CentraleSupélec and ENS Paris-Saclay on the following topics:
ENS Paris-Saclay – Supramolecular and Macromolecular Photophysics and Photochemistry Laboratory (PPSM)
- Reading and writing fluorescent micropatterns onto a surface with adaptive optics
CentraleSupélec – Light, Matter and Interfaces Laboratory
- Interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with gold nanoparticles for biomedical applications : experiments and simulation
École Polytechnique – Condensed Matter Physics Laboratory
- Topological disorder in 2D semiconductor alloys
- Localization induced by intrinsic alloy disorder in nitride semiconductor quantum heterostructures
- Towards spin-dependent recombination of a single spin
- Nanoscale electro-emission from individual single photon sources at SiC surfaces
IOGS – Charles Fabry Laboratory
- High order mode conversion for nonlinear optics experiments in microstructured fibers
- Optical tweezers for biomedical applications
During their stay, students will also benefit from cultural visits (Saclay plateau and Paris city) organized by the association Science Accueil, co-financed by Université Paris-Saclay and the École Polytechnique.