Read on for highlights of the people, projects, and partnerships helping us to ‘open the door’ to aspiring STEM leaders and amazing opportunities at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)! This issue features the breadth of student programs, internships, and fellowships that Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF) is supporting this year, thanks to our generous community of donors.
The compelling film Picture a Scientist set the stage for an important Lab and community event in early June. Honored by the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020, this award-winning documentary chronicles the journey and careers of three women scientists and the sexism, slights and often blatant harassment they encountered as they each pursued their love for science.
Click the above image to view a recording of the June 9 panel discussion
The Foundation partnered with the Lab’s Women’s Association and the Lab’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Program to offer both a private film screening and vibrant panel discussion.
More than 400 employees, community members, students and retirees signed up to watch the film and the live discussion. Sharing their perspectives and insights on the panel were Lab Director Kim Budil; Jason Cruz, Systems Engineer at LLNL and Chair of the Asian-Pacific American Council (APAC); Dr. Dyrell Foster, Las Positas College President and Monique Warren, LLNL Environmental Engineer. They were joined by Dr. Jane Willenbring (one of the film’s featured scientists) and Susan Houghton, a consultant with the Foundation who moderated the conversation.
In addition to the personal stories of the three scientists in the film, Picture A Scientist addressed the issue of the ‘leaky pipeline’ or attrition of women in science and how everyone within STEM can help address discrimination and disparity issues by moving from a “culture of compliance to a culture of change.”
Learn more about this event here
We are excited to be kicking-off our 2021 STEM programs! This year, we are honored to be partnering with SMASH Rising, UC Merced, and Las Positas College to support new and continuing fellowship opportunities at LLNL. The drive and passion for STEM among these scholars will be a wonderful addition to the Lab. Fellows will have hands-on learning experiences under the guidance of Lab mentors, propelling these students toward their academic and professional goals. We are excited to be a part of their journey and plan to share their stories throughout the year. Visit our website and social media for updates on our Fellows!
Welcome to Darry’elle, Derrick, and Ouyanatu!
On May 15, LLF’s 2020-21 UC Merced fellows graduated! Last year, Jose Garcia-Esparza and Teagan Zuniga each received one-year, $15,000 awards as part of the Foundation’s collaboration with UC Merced and the Lab’s Computing Directorate. These fellowships allow deserving students the opportunity to focus on their STEM studies, pursue an LLNL internship without financial worry, and have access to Lab mentors throughout their senior year of college. We are excited that both Jose and Teagan have returned to LLNL this summer for new Lab internships before embarking on their graduate school programs. We wish them well as they are off to their next adventures!
Jose graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering and will be attending the University of Southern California for a Master’s degree this fall. He was accepted to the GEM Fellowship Program, which provides for tuition, fees, living expenses, and supports his continued research at LLNL.
Teagan graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and will be starting the Political Science Ph.D. program at UC Merced this fall.
As we bid adieu to Jose and Teagan, we’re pleased to welcome our newest fellows, Randy Posada and Jason Van Tuinen. This year, Randy will be working on LLNL’s SPOKE (Scalable Precision Medicine Oriented Knowledge Engine) database, conducting biological data analysis. Jason will be working on adversarial machine learning in the context of image analysis.
2021-22 Fellow
2021-22 Fellow
In partnership with LLNL, we are excited to be sponsoring a new summer internship for a Las Positas College (LPC) student interested in gaining hands-on computer science experience with Lab mentorship. Avery Kempton began his 13-week internship on June 7, building mobile phone applications to demonstrate core physics concepts to students. His work is part of a larger effort at LLNL to develop a high school physics curriculum using mobile phone sensors to conduct experimental measurements. This opportunity was made possible by generous individual contributions through LLNL’s annual HOME campaign.
2021 Summer Intern
This is part of a larger effort at LLNL to develop a high school physics curriculum using mobile phone sensors to conduct experimental measurements. This internship opportunity was made possible by a generous contribution from Dr. David Rakestraw!
LLF Launches Carbon Fellowship Program
This year, LLF and LLNL are launching an inaugural fellowship program to support the Lab’s leading-edge Carbon Initiative, as well as the Foundation’s efforts to inform policy and community decisions about carbon capture and storage – one of the key scientific solutions to address carbon neutrality. We’ve partnered with UC Merced and the University of Texas at Austin to select this year’s Fellows, Brooklyn James and Melianna Ulfah. We welcome additional academic partners to help us grow a nationwide collaborative effort. Stay tuned for more information about our Carbon Cleanup Initiative later this summer, including a new website and a series of educational materials.
2021 Carbon Fellow
2021 Carbon Fellow
LLF Welcomes New Board Members!
Welcome Emily Peirano!
In April, LLF welcomed Emily Peirano as the Foundation’s first Development Associate, helping fulfill our fundraising, program, and operational goals as we continue to grow. We are thrilled to have Emily’s energy and expertise to help refine LLF’s development activities, including donor relations and stewardship, grant writing, marketing, and special events.
Downloads
2020 Annual Report »
LLF One-Pager »
Unique STEM programs like these are made possible via generous philanthropic support of the Livermore Lab Foundation.
Federal Tax ID #81-2567763.
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