A survey of applicants to the 2007 and 2008 intnernship program revealed that personal notification about the internship program is an important method for recruting students (see Table 1 below). Building on this finding, 2004 program alumnus, Justin Brown is hitting the road to recruit physics undergraduates, from primarily minority serving insitutions, to apply to the IRIS internship program for summer 2009. Justin's presentation will highlight cutting edge research conducted as part of his graduate work at Stanford University, while simaltaneously providing both students and faculty with exposure to geophysics as a possible career option for physics majors. This series will differ from traditional visiting lectures by occurring during physics classes with time for social interaction between the visiting graduate student, local faculty members and students immediately following. The first lecture of this series will be held on November 12th, 2008 at North Carolina A&T State.

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To request a speaker, please contact Michael.Hubenthal@iris.edu

Physics students are targeted for this new effort because few minority-serving institutions, particularly HBCUs, offer Earth science degrees. Additionally, an analysis of applications to the IRIS internship programs has revealed that physics majors tend to be over-represented in the pool of interns when compared with the number of physics major applications received. Therefore, it is anticipated that this novel effort will not only generate additional applications, but will also generate applications with a high probability of being accepted into the program.