As many Brunonians leave campus for the summer, a small group of other college students filter into Brown’s dorms, labs and dining halls in their place. Through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, students from across the country come to Providence to work with Brown faculty on summer research projects.
Students told The Herald that the REUs prepare them for future research projects while faculty said the experiences help forge connections between institutions.
The Department of Computer Science and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences were two departments that had researchers that hosted REUs last summer.
The two programs were developed in partnership with the Leadership Alliance, a consortium of Ph.D.-graduating and minority-serving institutions that help train students from diverse backgrounds. The Leadership Alliance was founded at Brown in 1992.
DEEPS began their current program in the summer of 2016 with seed funding from Brown, Professor of Geological Sciences Karen Fischer wrote in an email to The Herald. They became an NSF REU site in 2019, and since then they have hosted 52 students, she added.
According to Fischer, the department developed their NSF proposals with the alliance, which included data about how the program served students in previous years, plans for faculty involvement in the upcoming cycle and details about program management.
The program’s grant covers students’ stipends, travel expenses and housing, according to Daniel Ibarra, an assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences, environment and society and engineering.
“Our REU is a way that we can reach students from outside of Brown and provide them with the same type of high-caliber research projects and mentoring that we offer to Brown undergraduates,” Fischer wrote. “The REU has also been a great way of recruiting talented young researchers for our Ph.D. program.”
It also helps Brown reach “students at colleges and universities that do not have the type of research in Earth and environmental science that we have here,” Fischer explained.
There’s a mutually beneficial relationship between universities caused by REUs, Ibarra added. Since Brown students also often pursue REUs at other colleges, “we’re giving back to the community by also sending our undergrads out to other places,” he said.
Over the years, students have studied a variety of topics ranging from climate change and the evolution of planetary bodies to metals in Providence’s soil and glacial lake history, Fischer added.
Roxy Perazzo, a junior at the University of Michigan, conducted research with Greg Hirth ScM’87 PhD’91, a professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences. Perazzo applied to her program through the Leadership Alliance, and also considered several other REUs across the country. Hirth’s research, which focused on rock deformation in subduction zones, was her first choice.
“There wasn’t a lab that did that kind of research at Michigan,” Perazzo said. “It was just something that was new and exciting.”
For Alan Liu, a sophomore at Haverford College, Brown’s unique research opportunities had a similar appeal. Since Haverford is an entirely undergraduate institution, there are fewer research opportunities offered internally, Liu said. Their work this summer focused on how generative AI could be used to diagnose rare and complex diseases.
At Brown, Perazzo lived in the Wellness Residential Experience at Sternlicht Commons and spent her limited free time exploring Providence. She even went to a “porch fest” where different houses were playing live music. “There was always something to do,” she recalled.
But most of Perazzo and Liu’s time was spent on research, as well as workshops focused on graduate school preparation. “There were a lot of really, really helpful professional development workshops hosted by the Leadership Alliance,” Perazzo said.
Liu and Perazzo presented their work at the Leadership Alliance’s national symposium over the summer. Perazzo has submitted her abstract to present at the American Geophysical Union conference in December. The REU “definitely opened up a lot of opportunities to present my work, which was really awesome,” she said.
Even after REUs wrap up, Ibarra stays in touch with his old researchers — his first REU student recently finished a master’s in Europe, another is a PhD student in California and one is currently at California State University, Fullerton.
“In all cases, I’ve stayed in touch,” Ibarra said.
While Ibarra and Fischer are hopeful about the future of the program, NSF grant cuts could alter their plans. When Fischer last wrote REU proposals, “NSF was strongly encouraging programs that work to lower barriers to participation in science for all students, including students from backgrounds and identities that are underrepresented in science.”
“We are in the process of determining the types of REU programs that would be viable for NSF funding now, given the very different policies that were put into place at NSF in 2025,” she wrote.
Additional reporting by Annika Singh.
Ciara Meyer is a section editor from Saratoga Springs, New York. She plans on concentrating in Statistics and English Nonfiction. In her free time, she loves scrapbooking and building lego flowers.
