As part of Berkeley Lab’s efforts to nurture the next generation of particle accelerator scientists and engineers, the Lab’s Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division and the Academic Learning Internships and Faculty Training (A-LIFT) Office led more than 60 student interns on guided tours of ATAP’s BELLA Center and the Lab’s Advanced Light Source.
The tours, held throughout June and July, included undergraduate and graduate interns from the Community College Internship (CCI), Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI), Berkeley Lab Undergraduate Research, California Energy Power and Innovation Collaborative, Foundry Undergraduate Summer Experience, Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement- Community College Internship, and SEED Scholars @ LBNL programs. The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists sponsors the CCI and SULI programs. These programs enable students to collaborate with Berkeley Lab researchers and technical staff on projects, explore potential career paths at the Lab and across the DOE complex, become part of the professional community in their field, and form new friendships.
“Our internship programs at Berkeley Lab give students and recent graduates the opportunity to work on real technical or research projects, build skills that make them more competitive for future opportunities, and seriously explore career pathways in the national laboratory system,” says A-LIFT STEM Education Program Manager Laleh Coté.
“Additionally, Berkeley Lab benefits from the fresh perspectives interns bring to our community! Mentors often tell us that interns help them see their work in new ways, inspiring new solutions and next steps for their projects.”
During the 10-week summer internships, the interns—who work across both the operations and scientific divisions at the Lab—gain valuable insights into the Lab’s extensive research capabilities and its community of experts.
A key part of these internships includes touring the Lab’s state-of-the-art facilities and learning from its world-renowned experts. These include the BELLA Center, a global hub for excellence in laser technologies and their applications, such as next-generation particle accelerators based on laser-plasma acceleration. The BELLA Center also houses ATAP’s state-of-the-art BELLA Petawatt laser, which can deliver 40-Joule pulses lasting tens of femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second).
“The purpose of the BELLA Center tour is to create opportunities for higher education internship program participants to see the unique facility and to expand their knowledge of the work underway at BELLA, Berkeley Lab, and the National Labs as a whole,” explains A-LIFT Internship Coordinator Brieanna Wright.
According to BELLA Staff Scientist Kei Nakamura, who interned at the Lab in 2003 and led students on tours of BELLA, the students “asked great questions throughout. One that stuck with me was about the differences in acceleration mechanisms among cyclotrons, synchrotrons, and linear accelerators, which led to a nice discussion linking the hallway’s historical exhibits to the physics we work with today.”
He continues, “I just enjoy sharing our work with students—there’s something rewarding about walking people through the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind what we do. I’d be especially glad if these tours spark interest in a STEM career in even a few of them. For the Lab, I think these interactions are a meaningful investment: they build public understanding of what national labs do, and they help plant the seed for the next generation of scientists and engineers, some of whom may end up working here, like me.”
BELLA Senior Scientist and Deputy Director for Experiments, Jeroen van Tilborg, gave students a tour of the PW laser facility. He says, “I like to give tours like this because it gives me a chance to chat with the students. I ask them a few questions, too, like what they think of Berkeley Lab and what they are working on now. I always try to make an upfront connection between what they are working on and what they are about to see in BELLA.”
According to BELLA Research Scientist Alex Picksley, who also helped lead the guided tours of BELLA, the students “were very receptive, asking a wide range of questions about accelerators, the history of accelerator physics at the Lab, and the uses of lasers and accelerators across science. They were particularly interested in hearing how BELLA operates, thanks to a wide range of people, from theorists to experimental physicists to engineers.”
The students also visited the Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), a synchrotron light user facility supported by the DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences Program. The ALS operates more than 40 beamlines, serving nearly 1,700 users annually across the physical and life sciences.
“The tours for the interns are always a lot of fun,” says ATAP’s Outreach and Communications Specialist, Ina Reichel, who led the tours of the ALS. “They are interested in seeing the ALS and learning about the cool science happening here. They also ask great questions.”
Throughout the tours, the students were highly engaged and asked many questions, says Wright. “Many interns told me they really enjoyed the tour and learned new information about particle accelerator research, laser-plasma accelerators, and projects underway at the Lab.”
The organizers would like to thank the other staff members who participated in the tour, including Asmita Patel, ATAP’s deputy division director for operations, who organized ATAP’s outreach and education efforts, as well as all A-LIFT staff involved in the tours.
For more information on ATAP News articles, contact caw@lbl.gov.
