NIF Postdoc to Participate in Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

May 5, 2021

LLNL postdoctoral appointees Wei Jia Ong, Matthew Edwards, and Oluwatomi (Tomi) Akindele.

Three LLNL postdoctoral appointees, including one who works at NIF & Photon Science, were selected to attend the 70th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Germany in June. NIF&PS postdoc Matthew Edwards was selected along with Oluwatomi (Tomi) Akindele and Wei Jia Ong by the University of California President’s 2021 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows Program.

The annual meeting is an international scientific forum that provides an opportunity for about 600 students and postdocs from around the world to meet with 30 to 40 Nobel laureates. The meeting is intended to foster an exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines.

The 2021 meeting will be a hybrid event with an in-person scientific program of lectures and discussions broadcast virtually to some attendees.

“This is a significant honor for these postdocs, as well as for Livermore’s Postdoctoral Program,” said Kris Kulp, the former director of the program who oversaw the Lab’s Lindau nomination process. “The Lindau meeting will be a great opportunity for them to meet Nobel laureates, network with a diverse community of scientists and gain visibility on an international stage.”

The three fellows’ interests span the spectrum from applying physics to nuclear nonproliferation to investigating the origins of heavy elements in the cosmos.

Edwards’ research at NIF&PS focuses on how light and plasma affect each other in highly nonlinear regimes with the goal of building next-generation lasers and accelerators. He gets the chance to hear about some of the most exciting research being done today and to build connections with a group of accomplished scientists with diverse expertise and backgrounds.

“I am looking forward to being able to attend lectures and discuss current advances across a range of interdisciplinary areas of science,” he said. “Science requires teamwork, and large scientific endeavors require contributions from specialists in many different areas, as is well-illustrated by much of the work that LLNL does.”

As part of the WATCHMAN (WATer CHerenkov Monitor of ANtineutrinos) collaboration, Akindele’s research is dedicated to detecting the operational status of a nuclear reactor at a distance using antineutrinos measured with a gadolinium-doped water.

Akindele, an LLNL staff scientist working in the Nuclear and Chemical Science Division within the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate (PLS), said she is excited for the opportunity to gain new perspectives, and hopes the interaction during the meeting will aid her current research as well as future endeavors.

“I thank LLNL and the University of California for selecting me for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting,” she said. “I feel fortunate for the opportunity to meet with other early career scientists and Nobel laureates from across the world and with multidisciplinary backgrounds.”

Ong, a Lawrence Fellow in the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division within PLS, said she looks forward to hearing from the Nobel laureates about their approach to their research and problem solving. Ong investigates weak r-process (rapid neutron-capture process) nucleosynthesis through an interdisciplinary approach that combines radioactive beam experiments, microanalytical cosmochemistry measurements, and large-scale nucleosynthesis network calculations.

“For me the meeting will be a great chance to meet other young scientists from around the world,” she said, “not just to learn about their work but also their experiences and the different academic cultures in different parts of the world.

The selection process began in July 2020, when the University of California Office of the President (UCOP) requested nominations from Lab directors for the UC President’s 2021 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows.

This program, a collaboration of the UCOP, the UC National Laboratories Office, and the UC Office of the Chief Investment Officer, provides funding for up to six national laboratory-affiliated postdoctoral fellows and students to attend the 2021 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings in Lindau, Germany. Kulp ran a selection process from among the Livermore postdocs who expressed interest, forwarding LLNL nominations to UCOP, which submitted them to the Lindau organization.

—Michael Padilla

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