Consortium with Minority Serving Institutions delivers opportunities for students

The Consortium for High Energy Density Science (CfHEDS) had much to celebrate at its annual meeting this summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

“It was exciting to connect with our academic partners and their students,” said Federica Coppari, the LLNL liaison to CfHEDS. “The best part is hearing from the students about their research experience.”

The goal of CfHEDS is to expand and diversify the pipeline of students in high-energy-density science (HEDS), a field critical to much of the work done at LLNL. In 2018, CfHEDS was launched with a grant from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)’s Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP), which has been renewed through 2027.

The consortium is a partnership between Florida A&M University, the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), Morehouse College in Atlanta and LLNL’s High Energy Density Science Center.

The three-day meeting featured talks by faculty and students from the three universities as well as LLNL staff on science topics, internships and navigating the Lab. Patricia Falcone, LLNL deputy director for science and technology, kicked off the meeting with an inspirational presentation about the Lab’s missions and the role of HED science. Participants also toured the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the Jupiter Laser Facility (JLF).

A highlight was a talk by Jerry Clark, the first CfHEDS student to be hired into a staff scientist position at LLNL. While earning his bachlor's degree. and Ph.D. in physics from Florida A&M, he was a NIF & Photon Science summer scholar and LLNL intern.

“Before my involvement in MSIPP, I had never considered a career at a national laboratory, yet I could not imagine a better place to work,” said Clark in an NNSA profile. “The highlight of working at an NNSA national laboratory is the opportunity to work on experiments at the forefront of physics with the best resources available.”

The opportunities for mentorship by LLNL scientists and performing work at world-class facilities are key to CfHEDS, said Charles Weatherford, a Florida A&M physics professor and principal investigator for the consortium.

“I helped design this program with the goal of giving our students a shot at employment at a place like LLNL,” he said. “And it’s worked fabulously. Our funding allows us to support students while they intern at LLNL. The experience they gain is priceless.”

In 2001, Weatherford started the Florida A&M physics Ph.D. program, which has 42 doctoral graduates to date. He is developing coursework for HEDS and density functional theory as well as materials science and engineering.

UC Merced and Morehouse College also are developing HEDS coursework. CfHEDS also supports student attendance at scientific conferences sponsored by the American Physical Society and other organizations.

Ten CfHEDS students interned at LLNL in summer 2024, working closely with LLNL scientists on topics ranging from plasma physics and quantum computing to materials and planetary science. They learned what it is like to work at LLNL, connected with other students and enjoyed the various activities organized during the summer.

“The annual meeting was critical to hear the feedback the students have on their summer research experience at LLNL and other national labs,” Coppari said. “We learned what worked and what could be improved. They provided input on activities that would help them grow.”

The meeting also enabled the creation of new student/mentor relationships. Students were impressed by the breadth of the research carried out at the Laboratory and reached out to LLNL staff. In the coming year, Malik Carter from Morehouse College will be mentored by Dave Rakestraw, who leads the popular Physics with Phones workshops. Korey Brown, also from Morehouse College, is working with Ronnie Shepherd on calibrating two focusing crystals to be used in experiments at France’s Apollon laser facility next year.

“I met Korey at the CfHEDS meeting,” Shepherd said. “I was pleased he reached out to me to see if I’d be willing to mentor him this semester via his course assignment. Of course, I told him I’d be happy to. So, I think the meeting was a great success from that vantage point.”

Looking ahead, CfHEDS will continue to support summer interns and students who wish to pursue their Ph.D. research in collaboration with LLNL scientists.

“I’m excited to have the opportunity to be part of this consortium,” Coppari said. “I feel I am bringing awareness that physics could be a career path for someone who has never considered it.

“Being a woman in physics, I feel I can connect with students who struggle because of the lack of role models in their field. I tell them that they don’t have to look like the people around them to feel welcome. I aspire to an environment in which everyone is different, and that’s OK.”

LLNL aims to raise awareness and attract historically underrepresented talent in the sciences. The Lab strives to build a workforce pipeline through many other programs and strategic partnerships, such as the Department of Energy’s Reaching a New Science Energy Workforce (RENEW) program and LLNL’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities week, which will be held Oct. 31-Nov. 4. For more information on opportunities for students, visit the LLNL student internships page. For more information on CfHEDS, contact coppari1 [at] llnl.gov (Coppari).