Gran Sasso-South Dakota-Princeton Physics Summer School
Introduction
The GranSasso National Laboratories in Italy, South Dakota Department of Education / South Dakota Governor’s Office/ South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, and Princeton University in New Jersey, USA, are co-sponsors of the Gran Sasso-South Dakota-Princeton Physics Summer School.
This summer outreach program stems initially in 2004 from the scientific collaboration between the physics department at Princeton and the Laboratorio Nazionale del GranSasso (LNGS) in Italy, where Princeton scientists conduct research on neutrinos and dark matter. The outreach vision and efforts for the South Dakota students fits well with the mission of the state-of -the-art Sanford Science and Education Complex in South Dakota, planned for construction on the campus of the Homestake Mine in South Dakota to be used to teach students from all over the world about science and engineering.
The Gran Sasso-South Dakota-Princeton program is open to students enrolled in the fourth and fifth year of high schools located in the Abruzzo Region of Italy specifically, selected on a competitive basis giving preference to fourth year students, and to South Dakota students, recipients of the Davis-Bahcall Scholarships, provided by 3M, which cover tuition, room and board, and travel for the summer-study program.
The activities for the Gran Sasso students in Princeton includes English language courses, physics courses in the fields of physics and astrophysics that the Gran Sasso Laboratories are involved with and laboratory activities, to be taught in Italian by representative scientists from LNGS and University of L’Aquila. The South Dakota students attend physics classes in English to be taught by faculty members of the Princeton University Physics Department.
Both groups live together in a campus dormitory, joining in social outings and activities while in Princeton.