2024 Summer Students
Italian program
at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
and at other US Laboratories
July 29th - September 27th, 2024

The Deadline for application has been extended to April 1, 2024



The University of Pisa will organize a three-day Workshop at the Department of Physics in July 2024 to introduce the selected Summer Students to the Fermilab endeavours.
Similar initiatives were organized in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Workshop "Fermilab 2021 Summer Students School at LNF" (Monday, August 2, 2021 - Wednesday, August 4, 2021)
Workshop "Summer Students at Fermilab and other US Laboratories" (Monday, July 18, 2022 - Thursday, July 21, 2022)
Workshop "Summer Students at Fermilab and other US Laboratories" (Monday, July 24, 2023 - Wednesday, July 26, 2023)
Workshop "Summer Students at Fermilab and other US Laboratories" (Monday, July 22, 2024 - Tuesday, July 24, 2024)




Program
The Italian Summer Student program at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab, Video) started in 1983 within the rapidly-growing collaboration among the University of Pisa, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics of Italy (INFN) and Fermilab. In the first year 3 undergraduate physics students from the University of Pisa worked for 3 months at the construction of the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). In the following 40 years, with altogether over 600 physics and engineering students employed in all Fermilab Divisions, the program has become part of the extensive Fermilab educational effort.
The Training Programs of the 2023 Summer Students Program are available at the Link (Day 1, Day 2). The Training Programs of the 2022 Summer Students Program are available at the Link (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3). The Training Programs of the Summer Students Program of the years 2012 - 2022 are available at the Link (2012 - 2022). The Program is run by the Cultural Association of Italians at Fermilab (CAIF), which is the local chapter of the Italian Scientists and Scholars North America Foundation (ISSNAF), under the sponsorship of the US Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the University of Pisa (UNIPI), and the Italian Embassy in Washington. Student grants are secured also by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for students to be trained in US space enters.
The original program has been recently extended to train students at US research institutions other than Fermilab. These have included the DOE Argonne National Laboratory, and several US space science Laboratories. Space science internships for the year 2024 are announced in the following (ASI-Caif opening 2024). Private companies operating in the field of research and development are looking with interest at this educational program. The program was recently presented at the Conferences Lepton Photon 2021, Ichep 2022, EPS 2023.
To spread more broadly the beneficial effects of joining Fermilab research activities among EU students the University of Pisa has included this program among its educational Summer Schools since the year 2015. Accordingly, as of that year applicants can choose to enroll as University of Pisa students for the 9 weeks duration of the Summer School. Upon successful completion of the training, the University of Pisa will grant them 6 "CFU" credits (see paragraph below on "Credits"). The University of Pisa provided an additional financial support to the students (UNIPI Special Teaching Projects, 2022 and UNIPI Special Teaching Projects, 2023).
The University of Pisa Summer School is also part of the Outreach programs of a number of European Projects and Regione Toscana Projects:
MUSE - "Muon campus in US and Europe contribution" (Grant Agreement 690835, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015),
NEWS - "New windows on the universe and technological advancements from trilateral EU-US-Japan collaboration" (Grant Agreement 734303, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016),
INTENSE - "INTENSE: particle physics experiments at the high intensity frontier, from new physics to spin-offs. A cooperative Europe - United States - Japan effort" (Grant Agreement 822185, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018),
INTENSE - "INTENSE: particle physics experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe - United States effort" (Grant Agreement 822199, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019),
PROBES - "PROBES of new physics and technological advancements from particle and gravitational wave physics experiments. A cooperative Europe - United States - Asia effort" (Grant Agreement 101003460, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2020),
SENSE - "Search for New Physics and technological advancements from neutrino experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe - United States - Brazil - Russia effort" (Grant Agreement 101081478, HORIZON-MSCA-2021-SE-01),
PICO - "Physics for all" (Grant Agreement 101162413, HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01),
PRIMIS - "PRedIctive MaIntenance in hoStile environment" (POR CREO FESR 2014-2020).
IRMA - "Innovative Radiation Monitor for contAiners at port customs gates" (POR CREO FESR 2014-2020).
SNIFFER - "Development of Innovative Radiation Detectors to Search for Nuclear Materials Dispersed in International Commercial Transports" (FSC FAS 2021).

Target
The Summer School is oriented for Master Degree students or Master Graduate within 1 year since graduation in Physics, Applied Physics, Medical Physics, Engineering, Computing Science, Chemistry and Materials Science. Physics students will be trained in the research groups working on Fermilab initiatives (Mu2e, Muon g-2, NOvA, MicroBooNE, LAriAT, ICARUS, SBND, DUNE), or in the Fermilab groups involved with the CMS, experiment at CERN or with the Muon Collider Collaboration, or in the theory group, or in the Fermilab groups involved in Quantum Computing (SQMS). The internships of Engineering, Computing Science, Chemistry and Materials Science students take place in the Fermilab Accelerator Division (AD), in the Techical Division (TD), in the Scientific Computing Division (CD), or in groups involved in technogical and applied research at other laboratories and universities within the US. Each student is assigned to a supervisor who is responsabile of her/his training program. After a month of stay, students must give a mid-term oral presentation to show adequate progress of their research program. A final oral presentation and a detailed written report must be presented at the conclusion of the program. In some cases of mutual interest, the 9-week internship can be extendedby by several months to allow students to complete a Master Degree Thesis. We have tried to keep an online record of the summer students' training programs. There is no better description of the research opportunities offered by our program than reading the training programs of recent years.

Organizing Committee
- Prof. Eng. Emanuela Barzi, PhD, Fermilab Senior Scientist, FNAL, leader of the Superconducting Strand and Cable Research Group of the TD
- Dr. Eng. Marco Mambelli, PhD, Fermilab Senior Software Developer, FNAL
- Prof. Giorgio Bellettini, Emeritus, Department of Physics, University of Pisa and INFN - Pisa
- Prof. Simone Donati, PhD, Department of Physics, University of Pisa and INFN - Pisa


School Coordinator
- Prof. Simone Donati

Teaching Staff
The Supervisors are an international and multidisciplinary staff of physicists, engineers and computing scientistis of Fermilab, of Italian Universities and of INFN, that is expanded each year.

This is a list of collaborators and possible contact persons for information in some Italian Universities and INFN Departments.
- Prof. Nicola De Filippis, nicola.defilippis@ba.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' di Bari, Politecnico di Bari
- Dr. Laura Patrizii, laura.patrizii@bo.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Bologna
- Prof. Catia Petta, catia.petta@ct.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Catania
- Dr. Stefano Miscetti, stefano.miscetti@lnf.infn.it, INFN - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
- Dr. Ivano Sarra, ivano.sarra@lnf.infn.it, INFN - Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
- Dr. Lea Di Noto, LeaDiNoto@ge.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Genova
- Prof. Gianluca Valentini, gianluca.valentini@polimi.it, Politecnico di Milano
- Dr. Antonio Gioiosa, antonio.gioiosa@gmail.com, Universita' degli Studi del Molise
- Prof. Michele Iacovacci, iacovacci@na.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
- Prof. Francesco Di Capua, francesco.dicapua@unina.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
- Prof. Daniele Gibin, daniele.gibini@pd.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Padova
- Dr. Christian Farnese, christian.farnese@pd.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' degli Studi di Padova
- Dr. Alberto Guglielmi, alberto.guglielmi@pd.infn.it, INFN Padova
- Dr.ssa Patrizia Azzi, patrizia.azzi@pd.infn.it, INFN Padova
- Prof. Alessandro Menegolli, alessandro.menegolli@unipv.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' di Pavia
- Dr. Marco Incagli, marco.incagli@pi.infn.it, INFN - Sezione di Pisa
- Prof. Domizia Orestano, domizia.orestano@uniroma3.it, Department of Mathematics and Physics University Roma III
- Dr. Fabio Anulli, fabio.anulli@roma1.infn.it, INFN - Sezione di Roma
- Dr. Marco Rescigno, marco.rescigno@roma1.infn.it, INFN - Sezione di Roma
- Prof. Cesare Bini, cesare.bini@roma1.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Universita' di Roma
- Prof. Antonio Di Domenico, antonio.didomenico@roma1.infn.it, Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapiena Universita' di Roma
- Dr. Francesco Massaro, f.massaro@unito.it, Department of Physics University of Torino, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Dr. Luca Latronico, luca.latronico@to.infn.it, INFN Sezione di Torino Esperimento Fermi-LAT
- Prof. Stefano Argiro', stefano.argiro@to.infn.it, Departmento of Physics, University and INFN Sezione di Torino
- Prof. Giovanni Cantatore, giovanni.cantatore@ts.infn.it, University of Trieste and INFN Trieste
- Prof. Massimo Lazzaroni, massimo.lazzaroni@unimi.it, University of Milano and INFN Milano
- Dr. Maurizio Bonesini, maurizio.bonesini@mib.infn.it, University of Milano Bicocca and INFN Milano Bicocca
- Prof. Luca Tomassetti, luca.tomassetti@fe.infn.it, University of Ferrara and INFN Ferrara


Qualification for admissions
Equal opportunity admission to the Summer School is open to students of any Italian or non-Italian University, on a highly competitive basis. Participants are accepted within the budget constraints and available training programs. Candidates are selected on the basis of their exam and graduation grades and of their suitability for the program, as indicated by personal statement and CV and as understood in the interview. The interviews are made in two steps: first, it is checked that the student's knowledge of English is at least grade 8 equivalent; next, the awareness of the student of the job to be performed and his/her required skills are checked. The interviews can be performed in person or on Skype. To be admitted to the interview, a preselection is applied on the student's academic achievement.

Students of Italian Universities
For Master students:
- Bachelor degree grade > 100/110
- Master courses Exams average grade > 26/30
For Master graduates:
- Master degree grade > 100/110

Students of non-Italian Universities
Please provide an exam certificate in a form expressing the marks also in percentiles from your university.
Master students:
- Bachelor degree grade ranked in the top 10 %
- Master course exams average grade ranked in the top 15 %
Master graduates
- Master degree grade ranked in the top 10 %.

Credits
In order to enable students to obtain credits from their universities, upon successful completion of the training program, the University of Pisa will issue certificates for 6 "CFU" credits. These credits will be acknowledged according to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and recorded in the students' Diploma Supplement.

Application
Download the Application form
The application form must be compiled in all its parts and sent by e-mail with subject "Application to the Summer Student Program at Fermilab 2024" before March 1, 2024 to fermilab.summerschool@unipi.it , together with a CV in European format and a letter of intent with a description of the Fermilab research activities of interest and the personal motivation to participate in the program. In the letter the student should provide some information about his/her specific interests (e.g. software, hardware, neutrino physics, electronics, data analysis, simulation, detector development, and alike). If available, a reference letter by a mentor should be e-mailed by the mentor directly to fermilab.summerschool@unipi.it.
In 2024 we are also testing the online submission system developed by the University of Pisa: please submit the application also through the University of Pisa Portal, by following the instructions reported at the following Link.
All Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by May 1st, 2024.

Participation fees and support from Fermilab
The following charges will apply for the successful candidates:
- There is no fee to enroll in the Summer School of the University of Pisa;
- The health insurance as appropriate for Fermilab visiting students, valid for the planned period of stay in the US;
- The fee for the J1 Visa;
- The Europe - Chicago round-trip flight ticket.
Students will be employed as trainees by Fermilab, they will get a net salary of approximately 500 $ per week, free accomodation in a local hotel (in single rooms at the Fermilab dormitory when available) and a free shared rental car. The Fermilab Visa Office will provide the documents needed to the students for obtaining the required J1 entry Visa.


Contacts
If you have questions about the Summer School, please contact the coordinator at fermilab.summerschool@unipi.it
Internal Documentation