Alfred Mishi has a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Jos, Nigeria, where he graduated as the valedictorian for the 2019 class, and an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree in Large-Scale Accelerators and Lasers from the Université Paris-Saclay, France, and Sapienza University in Rome, Italy. In this 3Q4, Alfred, who joined the Advanced Modeling Program in the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division at Berkeley Lab as a student intern earlier this year, talks about his research interests, what attracted him to the Lab, and his experience so far working here.
What fueled your interest in particle accelerators?
In 2013, I had the privilege of representing Nigeria and Africa at the 2nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three (ASEAN+3) Junior Science Odyssey at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, a science competition among 13 countries across the world with over 80 high school participants. During the competition, I was exposed to ongoing research on advanced particle accelerators and received a bronze medal and a deep curiosity about advanced particle accelerators. This led me to pursue an undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Jos in Nigeria.
During my master’s program in France, I joined the Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie in 2023 to work on the Plasma Laser Accelerator Project, which explored laser-plasma acceleration. Driven by my passion for accelerator technology, I participated in the Summer Student Program at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. The program focused on the plasma wakefield accelerator project FLASHForward. My research involved optimizing plasma wakefield acceleration using computational tools to replicate experiments.
What attracted you to join ATAP’s Advanced Modeling Program?
My experience at DESY inspired me to continue research on advanced accelerators, in particular, focusing on computational aspects. During my third semester at Université Paris-Saclay, a professor introduced me to the Accelerator Modeling Program (AMP) at Berkeley Lab and emphasized the program’s exceptional tools and environment for advanced accelerator computation. Intrigued, I applied for the graduate internship program at AMP and was fortunate to be selected, receiving a student fellowship to support my master’s thesis internship at the Lab.
How have you found working at the Lab, and what research are you working on?
During my studies in Europe, I often heard incredible stories about the Lab, its culture, and its working environment. Since joining the Lab, everyone here has warmly welcomed, encouraged, and guided me. In a short period, I have learned a great deal and now fully understand the remarkable reputation that precedes the Lab.
I am currently testing and benchmarking a 3D integrated Green’s functions Poisson solver in WarpX. This solver would help make simulations of the interaction point physics in future colliders faster and more accurate and could advance high-energy physics research.
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