Kentucky student’s RIPP internship was a life-changing experience
At a crucial academic moment, Ash Coleman’s experience as an intern in the Regional Introduction to Plasma Physics (RIPP) program pointed her in a direction that positively changed her life.
“RIPP provided me with an opportunity to prove myself to, well, myself,” Coleman says. “It helped me build up my confidence in myself.”
Applications for the May 27 to July 25, 2025, RIPP are being accepted now.
Sponsored annually by the Future Technologies & enabling Plasma Processes (FTPP) grant, RIPP is a nine-week summer internship program for Alabama and Southeastern undergraduates that promotes long-term relationships between the students and investigators in Alabama. RIPP provides an intensive online two-week certificate course at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory including lectures, laboratory experiments and short classes in plasma science. The program includes a hands-on eight-week plasma research experience at one or more of the nine FTPP universities.
FTPP is a $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that supports a collaboration of nine statewide universities and a research organization dedicated to plasma research, commercialization and the establishment of a plasma workforce in Alabama. The project is managed by The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Coleman says she applied for the internship at a time when she had begun to be overwhelmed by doubt in her intelligence and her ability to continue to higher education, especially in physics.
“I didn’t know if I even wanted to try – I felt lost and I was starting to lose motivation to continue,” she says.
“Astronomy was beautiful, and the research was just as interesting as it had been when I started, but I didn’t know if I wanted to do that for the rest of my life, and I didn’t think I had what it took to beat out others who had done much better than me academically. Sometimes, we are our own worst critics.”
A new direction
RIPP provided her an opportunity to intern with an Auburn University (AU) plasma research group and is one of the main reasons she ended up applying to and getting into AU’s doctoral program, Coleman says.
“If I had not done this internship, I may not have ended up pursuing my PhD, and if I did it would’ve been in astrophysics,” she says. “My internship provided me with the hands-on experience I desired, alongside a computational aspect that I found more interesting than that of my astrophysics research, which led me to apply to Auburn for graduate school so I could join the research group I did my internship with.”
The Georgetown, Ky., native says she’s working to become a member of the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment (MDPX) research group led by Dr. Edward Thomas Jr., dean of the AU College of Sciences and Mathematics and an FTPP lead researcher. She began her doctorate program at AU in August 2024 after graduating from Thomas More University in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and a minor in astronomy.
RIPP provided her the research experience she needed, the necessary knowledge of plasma, a wonderful support group, and confidence in herself and her abilities, she says.
“The program gave me a lot of knowledge about plasma physics that I did not have before. Being from Kentucky, I did not have much knowledge about plasma physics or how extensive the research is within every scientific field.”
In October 2023, Coleman presented the research she did for her internship at the 65th American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo.
“The most impactful part of my internship, other than realizing where I wanted to go with my degree, were the people who supported me throughout the whole process, and continue to do so now,” Coleman says.
“From outside users of MDPX, to Auburn graduate students, to the physics faculty and staff, to the organizers of RIPP—everyone was and has continued to be extremely supportive, and that is one of the reasons why I am able to continue pursuing my PhD.”