2025 Summer Student Italian program at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and other US Laboratories

July 28th – September 26th, 2025


Deadline for application March 1, 2025 

 

 

 

The University of Pisa will organize a three-day Workshop at the Department of Physics in July 2025 to introduce the selected Summer Students to the Fermilab endeavours. Similar initiatives were organized in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

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 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 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. 

The Training Programs of the Summer Student Program of the years 2012 – 2024 are available at the Link (2012 – 2024).

In some cases, some students have been trained at US research institutions other than Fermilab, as the DOE Argonne National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Some grants are also secured by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for students to be trained in US space centers. Space science internships for the year 2025 are announced in the following (ASI-Caif opening 2025). The program was recently presented at the Conferences Lepton Photon 2021, Ichep 2022, EPS 2023, Ichep 2024.

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”). In 2022 and 2023, 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:

“Muon campus in US and Europe contribution” (Grant Agreement 690835, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015)

“New windows on the universe and technological advancements from trilateral EU-US-Japan collaboration” (Grant Agreement 734303, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2016)

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: particle physics experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe – United States effort” (Grant Agreement 822199, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2019)

“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)

“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)

“Physics for all” (Grant Agreement 101162413, HORIZON-MSCA-2023-CITIZENS-01)

“PRedIctive MaIntenance in hoStile environment” (POR CREO FESR 2014-2020)

“Innovative Radiation Monitor for contAiners at port customs gates” (POR CREO FESR 2014-2020)

“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, 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 Directorate (AD), in the Applied Physics and Superconducting Technology Directorate (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.

Team

Prof. Simone Donati

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.

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

Students of non-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

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, 2025 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 2025 we are also using 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, 2025.

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 600 $ 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.

 

Contact

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