Vanderbilt University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy 2025 participation in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program collaborated with the RGES PIT to train future microlensing astrophysicists. The participating students attended the microlensing mini course lectures and were assigned RGES PIT members as advisers, with their projects all being related to the future Roman Microlensing Survey.

Vanderbilt REU coordinators:
Keivan Stassun, Alexander Stephan, Jonathan Bird

The following students participated in the 2025 REU program on microlensing projects or were affiliated with it:

  • Catherine Rexer (Furman University)
    Advisers: Amber Malpas and Alexander Stephan
    Project: Hidden Binaries as the Source for Spitzer Microlensing Systematics

  • Alina Hussain (Illinois Institute of Technology)
    Adviser: Jessica Lu
    Project: Simulating Roman GBTDS Microlensing Lightcurves

  • Caoimhín Perkins (Metropolitan State University of Denver)
    Advisers: Matthew Penny and Himanshu Verma
    Project: Constraining the Milky Way Bar Angle with Gaia

  • Alaina Schweitzer (Smith College)
    Advisers: Rachel Street and Katarzyna Kruszynska
    Project: RomeRea Survey Microlensing Detection via MicroLIA

  • Gregory Costa (The Ohio State University)
    Participated though OSU’s SURP program
    Adviser: Amber Malpas
    Project: Integrating Astrometry to Microlensing

The students gave final presentations about their projects at the end of summer 2025; a recording of these talks can be found here.