Headquarters: Santa Cruz , CA

Description: The Center for Adaptive Optics (CfAO) will concentrate on astronomical and vision science applications of adaptive optics and will reach out to other adaptive optics communities to share technologies. It will develop new instruments optimized for adaptive optics. Adaptive optics is a method for removing the blurring of images caused by changing distortions within optical systems. Research areas include: AO for Extremely Large Telescopes, Extreme Adaptive Optics enabling ultra-high-contrast astronomical observations, and AO instrumentation and Compact Vision Science Instrumentation for Clinical and Scientific Use.

Headquarters: Boston , MA

Description: The Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) will create computer models able to provide advance warning of potentially harmful space weather events that could put astronauts at risk, disable satellites, disrupt communications, or cause costly damage on earth. "Space weather" includes a wide range of phenomena that arise in space near the earth through the interaction of powerful forces associated with the sun, the earth, and the constant outward flow of material from the sun known as the solar wind. Research areas include: Solar/Interplanetary Activity, Magnetospheric Modeling, Ionosphere/Thermosphere/Mesosphere, and Computation.

Headquarters: Cleveland, OH

Description: The Center for Layered Polymeric Systems, headquartered at Case Western Reserve University, will conduct research at the intersection between the physical sciences and polymer science and engineering. The research will center on a layering process created at Case that imparts features on the micro- and nanoscales. The forced-assembly process can combine otherwise incompatible polymers and other materials to produce hierarchical structures.

Headquarters: Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, CO

Description: The Center for Multi-Scale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP) will focus on improving the representation of cloud processes in climate models. The need for such improvements has been one of the most important limitations on the reliability of climate-change simulations. CMMAP will address this problem through a revolutionary new approach called the multi-scale modeling framework (MMF). Whereas conventional parameterizations are based on statistical theories involving uncertain closure assumptions, MMFs represent cloud processes on their native scales, and include the cloud-scale interactions among the many physical and chemical processes that are active in cloud systems. A very important strength of an MMF is that the results produced can be evaluated by comparison of simulated and observed cloud-scale processes.

Headquarters: Portland, OR

Description: The Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction will enable a nearly ubiquitous, river-to-ocean observation of physical and ecological processes and to further our understanding of these processes in order to manage, operate, and sustain coastal resources and ecosystems effectively - while fostering technological innovation, and training a diverse, scientifically literate and technologically savvy workforce.

Headquarters: Honolulu, HI

Description: The Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE) was established to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the diverse assemblages of microorganisms in the sea, ranging from the genetic basis of marine microbial biogeochemistry including the metabolic regulation and environmental controls of gene expression, to the processes that underpin the fluxes of carbon, related bioelements and energy in the marine environment. Undergraduates interns are sought from a variety of ocean and earth-science disciplines. Note: C-MORE internships are available during Fall and Spring semesters only -- not during the summer. For more information: http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/education/scholars_program.htm.

Headquarters: Lawrence, KS

Description: The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets is developing innovative radar sensors and autonomous platforms (unattended aircraft and rovers) to study the ice sheets and glaciers of Greenland and West Antarctica in order to predict their behavior. These ice sheets and glaciers contain most of the world’s fresh water, and should they completely melt, the level of the sea would rise significantly. Since over a third of the world’s population lives in coastal regions, the effect of global climate change on these ice sheets has global significance. Research areas include: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Aeronautical Engineering, Geography, Geology, Glaciology. For more information: http://cresis.ku.edu/.

Headquarters: Seattle , WA

Description: The Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (MDITR) is based on the broad technical mission to understand the basic molecular and structural nature of non-traditional (i.e. organic) IT materials; synthesize and process molecular systems that have novel properties; and design and fabricate useful low-cost devices with superior electronic, photonic, and opto-electronic properties. For example, MDITR is working on an E-O modulator that can translate the electronic signals from a telephone, computer, or radar at least ten times faster than existing devices for a fraction of the cost. Researchers from a wide variety of disciplines and Universities work together to achieve these goals. MDITR offers undergraduate research opportunities in theoretical, synthetic and materials chemistry, optics (physics) and mechanical and electrical engineering at three main locations across the U.S.: University of Washington in Seattle; University of Arizona in Tucson; and Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. For more information, please visit http://www.stc-mditr.org/REU.