International Summer Research Program in Gravitational-Wave Physics operated by the University of Florida for the LIGO VIRGO Science Collaboration

The NSF-funded Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), 20+ US universities and colleges, and their international partners in Europe, Australia, and Japan are operating a network of six large scale interferometers to detect gravitational waves from neutron star or small black hole mergers, supernovae, and other galactic or cosmological sources. The data analysis as well as R{\&}D activities for future gravitational-wave detectors are organized within the LIGO VIRGO Scientific Collaboration. This international frame provides the backdrop of our international summer research program. Our international partners offer currently up to 30 different research projects at 15 different institutions in 6 different countries on 3 different continents for US undergraduate students. Our primary target group are students from small US colleges who are active members of the LIGO Science Collaboration. In addition to the standard goal of exposing the students to cutting edge research, the students will also be exposed to a different culture (and usually language), and their research experience will help our small college groups to build-up or solidify their own research connection with our international partners. See http://www.phys.ufl.edu/ireu for more details.