A collaboration between researchers at ATAP and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH) has received a Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) award. Supported by the Department of Energy Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences Program, RENEW is designed to foster research and education at historically underrepresented institutions in the Office’s research portfolio. It harnesses the unique capabilities of national laboratories, user facilities, and other research infrastructures to offer undergraduate and graduate students invaluable hands-on training, mentoring, and networking opportunities.

Berkeley Lab Deputy Director for Research Carol Burns said the RENEW program “builds important foundations for research at institutions historically not well represented in the science and technology ecosystem. These RENEW awards are also important to our own strategies for building partnerships. Through these efforts, we can help train the next generation of scientists, and not leave any talent behind.”

The “Simulations and Experiments of Ion Acceleration and Qubit Synthesis with High Power Lasers” is a new, three-year initiative supported by RENEW funding that will enable UH students to participate in state-of-the-art research to create quantum bits (or qubits), the basic building blocks of quantum technologies. These qubits could enable new devices for applications in quantum information science, an emerging field that promises to transform security, computing, and communications.

“We are thrilled at Berkeley Lab about this opportunity to work with UH in this exciting topic area and to support the next generation of scientists in their career development,” said Thomas Schenkel, senior scientist and head of ATAP’s Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Program, who is leading the Lab’s efforts in the program.

The program will provide hands-on experimental opportunities for UH students and advance UH’s research in high-energy-density physics. Students will perform experiments, analyze qubit samples, compare model predictions, and publish results.

According to Schenkel, high-energy-density and quantum information science are rapidly developing areas, and bringing “these topics together here in our new collaboration with experiments, modeling, and simulations is fascinating.”

To learn more …

Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW)

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