This research program, located at an undergraduate institution, features hands-on, table-top experiments using lasers and heated atomic samples to measure with great accuracy certain properties of complex atomic systems. These experimental results can then be compared to state-of-the-art models with which theoretical physicists can predict these same properties. With better understanding of the workings of these particular atoms, it is possible for future laboratory experiments to use such atoms as tools to provide insights to some of the most profound questions facing science today – including the nature of dark matter in the universe and the possible presence of new elementary particles not yet discovered. In the PI’s laboratory, experiments proceed with the aid of talented undergraduate researchers, many getting their first taste of science research. Students become involved in all aspects of the experimental work, building and testing apparatus, designing new experiments, and carrying out data collection and sophisticated data analysis procedures. Over recent decades, highly precise atomic physics experiments using laser spectroscopy have contributed important insights into the physics of the Standard Model of particle physics. Such low-energy physics tests complement accelerator-based experimental work as well as observational astronomy searches. The tiny size of these effects demands very high precision, extensive study of potential errors, and careful experiment