15 Physics Research Programs for High School Students

If you are in high school and curious about what research in physics truly entails, physics research programs provide a way to work on real scientific problems before college, going well beyond what a classroom or textbook can cover. They allow you to pick up techniques that working physicists use daily, from operating laboratory instruments and writing data analysis code to reading primary literature and presenting findings to a technical audience. Some placements put you in a DOE or Navy research laboratory working on condensed matter, accelerator science, or materials characterization, while others focus on polymer physics, atmospheric science, or computational modeling. Several offer the chance to co-author published research or present at professional conferences.

What are the benefits of attending a physics research program?

A physics research program can help you explore the discipline through lab work, real data analysis, and experimentation. You may spend a few weeks determining the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid using telescope observations and Python, conducting nuclear physics experiments at a rare-isotope facility, implementing quantum algorithms in code, or classifying variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy using spectroscopic data. The experience can help you connect classroom concepts to genuine physics applications in fields like astronomy, medicine, tech, quantum science, and nuclear science. 

Additionally, time spent in a university lab or national facility can put you in regular contact with graduate students, postdocs, and faculty whose feedback can shape how you think about the field and what you decide to pursue next. These connections often carry weight long after the program ends, whether you need a recommendation letter, advice on college coursework, or a clearer picture of what a physics career looks like.

To help you shortlist opportunities, we have put together a list of 15 physics research programs for high school students. 

If you’re looking for STEM research programs, check out our blog here.

Key takeaways

• These 15 physics research programs span astrophysics, quantum science, condensed matter physics, and polymer science, with placements at national labs (Brookhaven, NIST), universities (MIT, Stanford, UIUC), and remote programs (Lumiere, Veritas AI, SPINWIP).

• Several programs are free or low-cost with stipends, including RSI, SEAP ($4,000+), Brookhaven HSRP, and NIST SHIP, while others like UC Santa Barbara's RMP and Stony Brook's Garcia Center charge substantial tuition with need-based aid available.

• Remote and virtual options, including SPINWIP, the Lumiere Research Scholar Program, and Veritas AI's AI Fellowship, let students engage in physics-adjacent research without needing to relocate.

• Program formats range from five- to eight-week intensive research placements (SSP, RSI, Simons) to programs offering college credit alongside research (ASSIP, UC Santa Barbara RMP).

1. Research Science Institute (RSI)

Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus, Cambridge, MA

Cost: Free apart from a non-refundable $75 application fee (waivers available)

Acceptance rate: About 2.5%; 80 – 100 students/cohort

Dates: Six weeks in the summer

Application deadline: Mid-December

Eligibility: Rising high school seniors, ages 16 years and above 

RSI is a competitive program that invites high school students to the MIT campus to gain early research exposure. The opening week at RSI will consist of advanced lectures from MIT and visiting professors in mathematics, physics, and engineering, after which you will conduct original research in MIT and Boston-area laboratories under a faculty-assigned mentor. You will get to read the current literature in your chosen field, execute a detailed research plan, and produce both a written paper and a conference-style oral presentation. Placements typically span a range of STEM areas, including physics-focused projects. Past participants have worked on topics like the pointwise temporal decay of solutions to the Klein-Gordon equation in Schwarzschild spacetime, stochastic processes in quantum error correction, chaotic pilot wave dynamics, and level spacing for resonances of open quantum maps. 

2. Veritas AI’s AI Fellowship with Publication & Showcase

Location: Virtual

Cost: Varies; full financial aid available

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective

Dates: Vary by cohort: Summer, Spring, Fall, and Winter

Application deadline: Summer (May), Spring (January), Fall (September), and Winter (November). You can apply here.

Eligibility: High school students who have completed the AI Scholars program or have experience with AI concepts or Python

Veritas AI provides high school students passionate about AI with a suitable environment to explore their interests. The programs include collaborative learning, project development, and 1-on-1 mentorship. Students are expected to have a basic understanding of Python or are recommended to complete the AI Scholars program before pursuing the fellowship. The AI Fellowship program lets students pursue independent AI research projects. Students work on their research projects over 15 weeks and can opt to combine AI with any other field of interest. You can find examples of previous projects here and read about a student’s experience in the program here.

3. Anson L. Clark Scholars Program @ Texas Tech University

Location: Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

Cost/Stipend: $25 application fee; $750 stipend.

Acceptance rate: Extremely selective; 12 students/year

Dates: June 21 – August 6

Application deadline: February 16

Eligibility: High school juniors and seniors, ages 17+, who are U.S. citizens/U.S. permanent residents

This program invites 12 high schoolers to the Texas Tech campus each year to work on STEM research. You will work one-on-one with a faculty mentor on original research in tracks that include physics, chemistry, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, economics, and cancer biology. Past scholars have used the program to investigate pulsars as local gravitational wave detectors in globular clusters, while other recent cohort projects ranged from golf swing classification using FMCW radar to the study of albumin interactions controlling afterglow luminescence in semiconducting polymer nanoparticles. The timeline will provide enough runway to move from literature review through data collection to a finished product. Weekly seminars will expose you to research questions from the other disciplines in the cohort, so you may hear about problems in cancer bioimaging or computational science while you are working on a physics-focused research question. Your work will culminate in a written research project report. 

4. Lumiere Research Scholar Program

Location: Remote!  You can participate in the program from anywhere in the world.

Cost: Varies by program type; full financial aid available.

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective

Dates: Varies by cohort: fall, summer, spring, and winter. Available options range from 12 weeks to one year.

Application deadline: Varies based on cohort

Eligibility: Students enrolled in high school who demonstrate strong academic performance

The Lumiere Research Scholar Program is a rigorous program tailored for high school students. It offers extensive one-on-one research opportunities across a broad range of subjects that you can explore as a high school student. The program will pair you with Ph.D. mentors to work one-on-one on a research project. At the end, you will have developed an independent research paper! You can choose from areas such as physics, math, computer science, data science, engineering, psychology, international relations, chemistry, economics, and more. You can learn more about the application here and read students’ reviews of the program here and here.

5. Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program (SEAP)

Location: Various labs across the U.S.

Stipend: $4,000 for new students | $4,500 for returning participants

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective; ~300 students/year

Dates: Eight weeks in the summer; the term can be extended to 10 weeks.

Application deadline: November 1; applications open on August 1.

Eligibility: High school sophomores, juniors, or seniors who are 16 or older and are U.S. citizens; labs may have additional requirements.

SEAP is a STEM program that places high school students in Department of the Navy labs for 8 to 10 weeks of hands-on research experience. During the program, you will connect with scientists, gain firsthand exposure to ongoing naval science and engineering research, and assist with research projects and lab work. Placements span science and tech disciplines, including physics, astronomy, and applied math. Beyond lab work, you will attend seminars, meetings, and presentations and learn about various pathways in naval research and tech. You will also have the opportunity to shadow researchers and other professionals throughout the program.

6. Simons Summer Research Program @ Stony Brook University

Location: Stony Brook University campus, Stony Brook, NY

Cost: No tuition/fee (residential costs may apply); stipend available

Acceptance rate: <5%

Dates: June 29 – August 7

Application deadline: February 5

Eligibility: U.S. citizens/permanent residents currently in 11th grade, ages 16 and up 

This program places you in a Stony Brook University research group and pairs you with a faculty mentor in one of several available disciplines, including Physics and Astronomy. You will work on an ongoing project and take on increasing responsibility for a defined piece of the work as the weeks progress. Weekly faculty research talks will introduce active investigations from departments across the university, and workshops, lab tours, and special events will fill out the rest of each week. The program will conclude with a written research abstract and a poster presented at the closing symposium, where you will receive a stipend award.

7. NIST Summer High School Internship Program (SHIP)

Location: NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) campuses in Boulder, CO, or Gaithersburg, MD

Cost/Stipend: Free; no stipend

Acceptance rate: 4% for Boulder, CO applicants | 10.6% for Gaithersburg, MD applicants

Dates: June 22 – August 7

Application deadline: January 26

Eligibility: Current high school juniors or seniors with a GPA of 3.0+; students must be U.S. citizens who live within 50 miles of either of the NIST campuses.

SHIP places high school students in research labs to work under the mentorship of NIST scientists, a non-regulatory federal agency focused on measurement science. You will join one of six NIST laboratories at either the Gaithersburg or Boulder campus, each covering distinct areas of physical and engineering science. The Physical Measurement Laboratory typically offers placements in atomic, molecular, and optical physics; quantum optics; radiation physics; astrophysics; nanoelectronics; and quantum-based electrical measurements. Other laboratories cover semiconductor electronics and nanomaterials, condensed matter science via neutron scattering, wireless networking, fire protection and robotics, and cryptography and machine learning. Past SHIP students have studied spectroscopy in both space and terrestrial contexts, tackled a robotics problem at NIST, and co-authored a published paper on semi-supervised deep learning for automatic crystal structure classification. At the end of summer, you will present your research work in the form of a poster.

8. Stanford SPINWIP

Location: Remote

Cost: None

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: July 6 – 24

Application deadline: May 1

Eligibility: High school students in grades 9 – 11 from around the world; students from under-resourced backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

SPINWIP, hosted jointly by the Stanford Physics Department and KIPAC, is a free program that lets you explore physics research over remote sessions. You will first explore foundational physics concepts, and then you will learn Python and apply it to physics-based projects in small groups of eight to ten students, each led by a Stanford undergraduate counselor. Lectures by Stanford professors and researchers from the Physics Department and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology will cover quantum physics, quantum computing, astrophysics, and cosmology. College planning and career development workshops will run alongside the physics content, and you can form mentorship relationships with the Stanford students and faculty involved. The curriculum will draw on active research topics in particle astrophysics and cosmology, giving you a window into the questions that occupy working physicists in these fields.

9. UIUC Young Scholars Summer STEMM Research Program

Location: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, Champaign, IL

Cost/Stipend: Free + fellowship payment available

Acceptance rate: Selective; typically ~30 lab spots/year

Dates: June 15 – July 31

Application deadline: March 31

Eligibility: Rising 10th–12th graders from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Iowa, or Wisconsin

This program lets you spend the summer engaging in research, shadowing undergraduate or graduate student researchers, analyzing results, and contributing to the ongoing work of the group you join at UIUC. The physics track at UIUC embeds you in research laboratories working on questions in dark matter, laser physics, and advanced materials. The broader GEnYuS track extends placement options to nuclear and quantum physics, aerospace engineering, materials science, and electrical engineering, among other departments. A poster session at the close will give you the opportunity to present your findings to peers, mentors, teachers, and parents.

10. Brookhaven National Laboratory High School Research Program (HSRP)

Location: Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY

Cost: Free

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: July 6 – August 14

Application deadline: March 20

Eligibility: Rising high school seniors who are at least 16+ and U.S. citizens or permanent residents

Brookhaven National Laboratory places high school students within its research departments to work on projects that support the lab’s work. The research departments span nuclear and particle physics, condensed matter physics and materials science, accelerator science, the National Synchrotron Light Source II, the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, quantum information science and technology, chemistry, computational research, and environmental science. Past participants have conducted computational studies exploring inhibitor drugs that disrupt proteins involved in infectious particle escape, and the breadth of departments means your placement could involve accelerator operations, synchrotron beamline experiments, or nanoscale characterization. You will work in a team, contributing to a shared research goal led by a dedicated mentor. You will present your findings through a poster session and/or oral presentation at the end of the program.

11. Summer Science Program (SSP): Astrophysics

Location: Multiple locations available

Cost: $11,800, but a sliding scale based on family income is available, with families earning below $75,000 receiving a full scholarship and travel coverage + stipends are available on request

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective

Dates: Mid/late June – Late July/August (five weeks); dates vary by site

Application deadline: February 19 (U.S. applicants); January 29 (international applicants)

Eligibility: Current 11th graders (rising seniors) who are 15 – 18 and have completed or are completing high school physics and precalculus by June for credit and a grade

SSP is a research-focused program that lets you work in teams to explore questions in astrophysics, such as determining the orbital parameters of near-Earth asteroids, using professional-grade telescopes, calculus, and scientific programming. You will collect observational data, locate your asteroid's faint dot among background stars, measure its position relative to surrounding stars, and use Python to calculate its position and velocity vectors. In the process, you will learn about celestial coordinates, digital observational techniques, astrometry, gravitation and celestial mechanics, coordinate transformations and statistics, differential and integral vector calculus, numerical methods, and differential equations. You will also program in Python using JupyterLab, Matplotlib, and Astropy. Using orbital physics, your team will estimate the six orbital elements that characterize the asteroid's path around the Sun; you will submit the resulting calculations to the NASA-funded Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union to improve tracking predictions. The program will include introductions to the electromagnetic spectrum, relativity, quantum mechanics, and cosmology.

12. George Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program

Location: Remote/hybrid or George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Cost: $1,299 + $25 application fee; financial assistance available

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not officially shared

Dates: June 18 – August 12

Application deadline: February 15

Eligibility: Students who are at least 15 years old (or at least 16 for wet lab/in-person internships)

At ASSIP, you will work one-on-one with a George Mason University faculty researcher on a hypothesis-driven research question. Internships are available in remote, in-person, and hybrid formats. Available areas of focus include physics, astronomy, exoplanet discovery, planetary atmospheres, solar space weather, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, climate change, mathematical modeling, nanoscience, and renewable energy. Scientific writing and communication training will run alongside the lab work, preparing you to produce a publishable-quality abstract by the end of the program. The eight-week program will conclude with the ASSIP Research Symposium and a poster session where you present your findings. Accepted abstracts will be published in the Mason Journal of Student Scientists Research. You will also earn three undergraduate college credits from George Mason University as part of the internship. 

13. UC Santa Cruz Science Internship Program (SIP)

Location: UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Cost: $4,250 tuition + $68 non-refundable application fee + additional housing and transportation costs; partial and full need-based scholarships and stipends available

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Selective

Dates: June 15 – August 8

Application deadline: February 27

Eligibility: Current high school students, ages 14 – 17

SIP is an eight-week program that lets you work on existing research projects at UCSC with faculty, graduate students, or postdoctoral researchers, tackling open-ended investigations across all five academic divisions of the university. You will connect regularly with your mentor to plan experiments, discuss primary literature, and review progress, and you will do authentic research on active questions. Physics-relevant placements in recent cycles have included identifying variable stars in the Andromeda Galaxy through color-color analysis, detecting stellar halo stars in the Milky Way, characterizing the very-high-energy component of gamma-ray bursts using VERITAS telescope data, and spectrally classifying high-mass X-ray binaries. Applied physics and engineering projects have covered recovering composite refractive indices of protective mirror coatings through dispersion-relation modeling and using autoencoders in space optical communications. The program will conclude with Presentation Day, a hybrid event where you will present your findings to the broader SIP community.

14. Stony Brook Garcia Center Research Scholar Program

Location: Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY

Cost: $4,000 + $50 non-refundable registration fee

Acceptance rate: Selective

Dates: June 24 – August 7

Application deadline: Usually in the spring

Eligibility: High school students, ages 16 and up, with an unweighted GPA of 95/100 or 3.8/4.0, standardized test scores of at least 60th percentile, who have taken at least 3 of English, Chemistry, Mathematics/Calculus, Physics, or Biology courses

This program at Stony Brook's Garcia Center places you in a university laboratory to design and carry out your own project in the domain of polymer and materials science research, which focuses on the physics of surfaces, interfaces, and molecular behavior at scales where thermodynamics and quantum mechanics intersect. Research topics may span polymer blends, composite materials, polymer-inorganic surfaces and interfaces, protein and DNA surface interactions, polymer recycling and materials engineering, and theoretical modeling of material behavior. During the program, you may gain experience with experimental techniques such as X-ray and neutron scattering, electron microscopy, X-ray microscopy, scanning force microscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. You will work alongside Garcia faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff. The schedule will combine formal instruction with independent lab work.

15. UC Santa Barbara Research Mentorship Program (RMP)

Location: University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Cost: $5,675 (commuter) | $13,274 (residential); financial assistance available

Acceptance rate/cohort size: Not officially disclosed

Dates: June 15 – July 31

Application deadline: March 9; application window opens on December 15.

Eligibility: Students in the 10th or 11th grade with a minimum 3.80 academic weighted GPA

RMP is a six-week opportunity to take on university-level research alongside a postdoc, faculty member, or graduate student on the UC Santa Barbara campus. You will begin with a virtual orientation, where you will learn about available placements and meet your mentor before starting hands-on work on campus. You can choose from a broad range of subject areas, including physics. You will spend most of your time on your project, lab work, and data analysis. You will also write a research paper and present your findings at a symposium. You will also earn 8 university credits by taking college courses focused on research fundamentals.

Frequently asked questions

1. What are the best physics research programs for high school students?

Strong options depend on interests. Students interested in astrophysics might consider the Summer Science Program or UC Santa Cruz SIP, those interested in quantum science might look at NIST SHIP or Stanford SPINWIP; and students interested in AI-adjacent research might consider Veritas AI's AI Fellowship.

2. Are there free physics research programs for high school students?

Yes, several programs are free, including RSI, SEAP, NIST SHIP, Stanford SPINWIP, UIUC's Young Scholars Program, and Brookhaven National Laboratory's HSRP.

3. Can students outside the U.S. participate in physics research programs?

Yes, Stanford SPINWIP is open to students worldwide, and the Lumiere Research Scholar Program and Veritas AI's AI Fellowship are fully virtual and open to international students. Most national lab and university programs require U.S. citizenship or permanent residency.

4. Which physics research programs let students earn college credit?

George Mason's ASSIP and UC Santa Barbara's Research Mentorship Program both include college coursework, earning students three and eight university credits respectively, alongside their research placements.