The program
Organized annually since 1986, The Hampton University Graduate Studies (HUGS) Summer Program at Jefferson Lab is an internationally renowned summer program in Nuclear Physics designed to train the nuclear workforce's next generation of researchers.
HUGS is designed for second and third year experimental or theoretical Nuclear and Particle physics graduate students who have finished their coursework. Students who are well into a research project are encouraged to apply as well. The program includes lectures and special topic seminars by internationally renowned physicists, and is simultaneously intensive, friendly, and casual. Students are selected on a competitive basis from each year’s pool of applicants, and the HUGS program provides support to a large fraction of the accepted participants by covering their local expenses, and in exceptional cases their domestic travel expenses. The students will be housed on site at Jefferson Lab, where they will have many opportunities to interact with the lecturers, as well as Jefferson Lab staff, graduate students and visitors; they will receive excellent insight into contemporary nuclear and hadronic physics, and the right set of tools to contribute to the advance of the field in the upcoming years.
Since 1986, HUGS at Jefferson Lab (formerly HUGS at CEBAF) has provided hundreds of students with a strong background in contemporary research topics in nuclear physics, and many former students now hold prestigious faculty or staff positions in academia and industry. The style of the school emphasizes a strong program of lectures with intense student participation. Lecturers stay for days, and are available to the students both formally and informally throughout the school. Formal, informal and social interactions among students are strongly encouraged, and two School Managers are appointed each year to coordinate and chair discussions during the lectures, assist the students, chair the student seminars, and organize short weekend trips and social activities.
HUGS 2024
The HUGS2024 program will take place on May 28 - June 14. You are also welcome to browse last year's school or go back even further in time through our "Archives".
Student Support
Thanks to a grant from the United States Department of Energy, we will be able to offer a limited number of standard HUGS fellowships that will cover lodging at the SURA residence facility (where kitchen facilities are available) and a contribution towards meal expenses. Students interested in this opportunity should note so in the registration page, and address their financial need in the appropriate field. (Please also ask your advisor to comment on this in their reference letter.) The deadline is January 30th, 2024.
In addition to these, we are happy to announce the JSA/HUGS fellowship for Graduate Students from Developing Countries supported by the JSA Initiatives Fund Program is back this year. The deadline for full consideration is January 20th, 2024. Under this fellowship, that supplements the standard one, we will be able to support up to two graduate students from a developing country, fully covering travel expenses (including international airfare), room, board. An additional visit of 1 or 2 weeks to Jefferson Lab may be possible, depending on funding, to meet with laboratory researchers and users, and to initiate or strengthen a research collaboration. Applications can be submitted at the above linked webpage.
Contact
Please forward all queries to:
HUGS at Jefferson Lab
Attn: Mary Fox, Suite 1, MS-12H2
12000 Jefferson Avenue. Newport News, VA 23606
Phone: (757) 269-6263 Fax: (757) 269-7002
e-mail: hugs@jlab.org
This program, supported by the JSA Initiatives Fund and the US Department of Energy, provides the opportunity for up to two graduate students from developing countries who are well into their PhD dissertation research project to participate in HUGS, and extend they visit to JLab by at least one week.
Archive Information for previous program years.
Pictured on the left: The HUGS program began in May of 1985 with a handshake between Jean Mougey (on the left) and Warren Buck.
