This summer, the Department of Mathematics and Physics at Marshall University welcomed ten undergraduate researchers from across the country for the second annual Appalachian Mathematics and Physics Site (AMPS) REU program. Funded by the National Science Foundation (award #2349289), AMPS gives students a chance to spend the summer as full-time, paid researchers working alongside faculty mentors on cutting-edge topics in math and physics.
From June through July, participants tackled exciting projects including graph theory and linear algebra with Dr. Sudipta Mallik, numerical semigroup rings with Dr. Aleksandra Sobieska, textile dye filtration with Dr. Sean McBride, binary star mergers with Dr. Maria Hamilton, and disease modeling with Dr. Chanaka Kottegoda. Their summer launched with a welcome cookout hosted by program organizers Dr. Tom Cuchta and Dr. Stephen Deterding and wrapped up with a poster session presented to the College of Science.
In addition to their research, students from Dr. McBride’s group took science on the road with physics outreach activities at local schools, and the entire group took a field trip to the Green Bank Telescope—the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope.
The AMPS REU is part of a national network of mathematics-focused REU sites and will continue at Marshall through 2027. Applications for the Summer 2026 program will open in Fall 2025. Learn more at the Appalachian Mathematics and Physics Site website.