Education and Outreach

CARS is deeply committed to investing in the researchers of the future.  We actively seek young scientists to mentor and strive to encourage students to consider careers in science.

We partner closely with Argonne’s Division of Educational Programs to mentor undergraduates employed through U.S. Department of Energy programs for student researchers.  A typical summer finds us hosting three or four undergraduates in formal mentored research projects.

CARS is also committed to supporting the development of early-career researchers and typically hosts four or five postdoctoral scholars.

Our primary outreach is through tours and internships for college students.  In a typical year, roughly 100 high-school and college visitors tour CARS each year, including girls participating in Argonne’s annual Science Careers in Search of Women event.  Other types of outreach include teaching experiments, workshops, and staff presentations.

Tours

CARS will gladly arrange tours for high school and college students and for the general public. In a typical year, more than 100 visitors tour CARS.

Tours usually include a short presentation on how the Advanced Photon Source works and the kind of research we do at CARS, followed by visits to one or more of our sectors. If no experiment is in progress, visitors can enter an experimental station. Tours can also include a stop at the observation decks of the APS, which give a birds-eye view of the synchrotron ring.

Advance notice is required because of restrictions on site access (Tuesday is a good day to visit, because the machine is shut down and lots of impressive equipment can be opened to view). We can accommodate groups of 25 or fewer people.

For tours of Argonne, contact Argonne’s tour coordinator at tours@anl.gov.

Workshops

CARS regularly organizes technical workshops to introduce new capabilities to our user community and to seek user input for future development of the facility. We also participate in teaching experiments designed to train young researchers in the methods of synchrotron x-ray research.

Student Interns

CARS partners with Argonne’s Division of Educational Programs and Outreach in mentoring undergraduates employed though U.S. Department of Energy student research programs.

Educational Contacts

Nancy Lazarz

GSECARS
(630) 252-0423
lazarz@cars.uchicago.edu

Vukica Srajer

BioCARS
(630) 252-0455
v-srajer@uchicago.edu

Natalie Chen

NSF’s ChemMatCARS
(630) 252-0476
nchen@cars.uchicago.edu

Below, you will find a summary of the very latest education and outreach events from across all three CARS sectors. This includes workshops, tours, tutorials, and more. Be sure to check back often to see what is new!

You can find full listings of of education and outreach events for each individual sector using the links on the right side of this page (above).

2023 APS SMS/CONUSS workshop

The Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, is organizing a three-day in-person workshop on SMS and CONUSS software. The workshop will introduce the SMS techniques and related beamline capabilities to participants. Extensive hands-on training on spectra...

GSECARS hosted ESRP students

GSE hosted ESRP students from H. L. Richards High School and Mundelein High School at 13 IDE as they workked on an x-ray analysis of airborne particulate matter collected by passive samplers in the Chicago area.