The Alice Palma Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The Alice Palma Summer Undergraduate Research Program

Thanks to a gift from a generous donor, the Department of Astronomy offers the Alice Palma Summer Undergraduate Research Program to encourage our majors to undertake research in astronomy. Students are paired with a graduate student or faculty mentor for a 10-week research experience on the Bloomington campus.

The Program is open to IU undergraduate majors in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Students receive a modest stipend for the 10 week program. The program runs concurrently with the Physics REU program so that students can also participate in activities organized by the Physics Department. Some flexibility in dates is possible to meet individual student needs.

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Alice M. Palma 

Applying to the Alice Palma Research Program

We are happy to announce the third summer of the Alice Palma Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Astronomy. Students will be paired with a graduate student or faculty mentor for a 10-week research experience on the Bloomington campus. 

IU undergraduate majors in Astronomy and Astrophysics are eligible for the program. Students will receive a modest stipend of $6,250 for the 10-week program. The program will run from May 26 through August 1.  At the end of the program, students will create a poster and give a brief oral presentation of their research at a departmental research celebration.  Opportunities to continue research projects into the fall semester for academic credit may be possible. 

Complete applications must include the following: 

  • A one-page personal statement:

The one-page statement should include which skills you would like to learn or goals if selected for the summer program. Your statement should also describe which field of astronomy you are most interested in learning about if there is a preference. Lastly, please comment on any past research experience and/or relevance of this program to your career goals.  

  • An Unofficial College Transcript 

Both should be submitted as a pdf and preferably combined into one attachment. Please put your first and last name within the attachment filename such as Choban_Caleb_Alice_Palma_application.pdf 

Application materials should be sent to astdept [at] iu.edu by March 31st 2025 at 5pm eastern time. 

Any questions regarding the program should be sent to Dr. Caleb Choban at cchoban [at] iu.edu

About Alice Palma

Alice Palma grew up in the Chicago area and received a scholarship to attend the University of Illinois. During World War II she served as an industrial chemist looking for impurities in the brass ingots (if any, they would show up with a mass spectrometer), testing the efficacy of newly-discovered penicillin, and testing zinc samples for impurities. She also taught English literature at Day-adult High School in Indianapolis.

Ms. Palma was a life-long learner with a wide range of interests ranging among astronomy, geology, music and even epigenetics. She loved travel, albeit vicariously, to learn about cultures, people, food, geography, history, flora and fauna. She exemplifies the deep curiosity about the world that we hope to encourage in our students. The Department is honored to host the Undergraduate Research Program in her name and we appreciate the support of the Palma family in establishing the program.