Feature Articles

Brookhaven National Laboratory and Queensborough Community College (QCC) have proposed a unique, hands-on certificate program to train future radiation protection professionals. This project is now being funded through the Developing Next Generation Radiation Safety Professionals (DNGRSP) grant awarded by the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP).

Successful DOE pilot traineeship program aimed at bolstering representation of Black, Hispanic, and other minorities in the field will continue, expand opportunities

Four scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have been selected by DOE’s Office of Science to receive significant funding through its Early Career Research Program. The program, which began in 2010, bolsters the nation’s scientific workforce by supporting exceptional researchers at the outset of their careers, when many scientists do their most formative work.

To build a foundation of inclusivity, the Faculty Outreach for Quantum-Interested UniversitieS (FOQUS) program is breaking down barriers, fostering networking, and preparing and developing underrepresented students from all STEM disciplines to enter the world of QIS.

When the pandemic forced us to keep our distance, people quickly found new ways to come together. By improving existing technologies and developing entirely new ones, we learned how to work, socialize, and share ideas without having to leave the solitary comfort of our living spaces. While this gave us the ability to take back parts of the activities we missed, it also allowed us to connect in new and interesting ways. For scientists at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, this meant being able to make cutting edge scientific instruments available to researchers around the globe.

Partnerships are essential to promote recruitment and retention of diverse talent and creating a diverse workforce benefits everyone. Varied perspectives and experiences often lead to better outcomes and invigorate the work and culture of an organization. For this reason, Brookhaven has been a long-time supporter and partner of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM), each year providing summer employment to several GEM fellows.

The start of this year’s physics run at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) also marks the start of a new era. For the first time since RHIC began operating at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in 2000, a brand new detector, known as sPHENIX, will track what happens when the nuclei of gold atoms smash into one another at nearly the speed of light. RHIC’s STAR detector, which has been running and evolving since 2000, will also see some firsts in Run 23.

Thanks to a recent upgrade to the medical isotope facilities at Brookhaven National Laboratory, actinium-225 (Ac-225), an isotope that shows great promise for treating cancer, can now be produced, purified, and shipped ready for use directly from the Lab. The first shipment left Brookhaven in mid-March. This upgrade will streamline the overall production and distribution of Ac-225 to research centers.

Tiny particles in Earth’s atmosphere can have a big impact on climate. But understanding exactly how these aerosol particles form cloud drops and affect the absorption and scattering of sunlight is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in climate models. Ogochukwu (Ogo) Enekwizu is trying to tame that complexity by creating soot-seeded clouds in the laboratory.

We need a better understanding of the particles emitted by wildfires, including how they evolve, so we can improve our predictions of their impacts on climate, climate change, and human health. Atmospheric scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborating institutions recently published a study that suggests the global climate models aren’t getting the full picture. Their data could change that.