About the Program

The program is open to U.S. and foreign PhD students in space physics, planetary sciences, aerospace engineering, or a related field.

In January we solicit applications for the summer session. The top ranked students are selected to participate in the program and receive the prestigious Vela Fellowship worth $10,000 USD to cover travel and living expenses.  During the program, students receive technical training and lectures, as well as an opportunity to develop their written and oral communication skills.

Mentors and projects

Students work on challenging research projects with a LANL scientist acting as their mentor.  Projects are related to current research topics in space weather, planetary science, orbital dynamics, etc. with access to Los Alamos satellite and instrument data.

Lectures

Students attend a variety of lectures given by distinguished researchers at Los Alamos. Topics are related to current space weather research, including plasma physics, radiation belts, numerical modeling, solar wind physics, spacecraft charging, and others.

Final presentation and report

At the end of the summer, students give a short oral presentation of their research in a technical forum and write up their results for inclusion in the Space Weather Summer School Research Reports.

Previous summer schools

The summer school has hosted many top quality student alumni to LANL. After the summer, students sometimes continue to work with their LANL mentors, presenting their research at conferences or submitting for publication in journals.

Application process »