Summer Scholar Program leaders (from left) Sam Schrauth, Krista Ladner, Reggie Drachenberg, Louisa Pickworth, Zhi Liao, Rajesh Raman, and Patrick Poole. The team works to bring a variety of activities and opportunities to the summer scholars working at NIF & Photon Science, including a seminar series highlighting the variety of Directorate research, a career panel, offsite tours, and networking events including doughnuts and lunches that let the students meet staff members and NIF Management.
(Download Image)Summer Scholars Tackle Big Science
As this year’s crop of NIF & Photon Science summer scholars have discovered, working at the Lab isn’t about traditional internship chores like making trivial coffee runs.
The 57 scholars representing more than two dozen schools in the United States and abroad have been challenged to work with world-class scientists as their mentors and contribute to the advancement of science.
And as the following profiles in this and the next issue of NIF & Photon Science News show, the scholars are not only meeting and exceeding those challenges, they’re giving something back to their mentors.
"When you teach something that you’re an expert in to somebody who’s never seen it before, it asks you to revisit assumptions you’re making on a day-to-day basis," said NIF physicist Louisa Pickworth, who for the first time is co-managing the NIF & Photon Science Summer Scholars Program, working with longtime coordinator Reggie Drachenberg.
"So, mentoring is an incredibly valuable opportunity for everybody," she said. "It’s very invigorating to work with those students and see them being excited about science, introducing them to NIF and working here at Livermore for the first time."
The lab has seen a 75 percent increase in the hiring of post-doctoral researchers and students in the past four years.
That makes programs like summer scholar a pipeline for "attracting that talent into the directorate for the future," Pickworth said. "It’s an investment, really, and it’s great to be a part of."
—Stories by Benny Evangelista
Measuring Plasma Temperature During NIF Shots
Getting Up to Speed on Laser-Plasma Interactions
Teamwork Propels Summer Scholars to New Discoveries
