On May 15, 2022, LLF’s 2021-22 UC Merced fellows graduated! Jason Van Tuinen and Randy Posada 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 share an update on all that Randy and Jason accomplished throughout their fellowship. We wish them well as they are off to their next adventures! 

Jason graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering. Over the course of the school year, he took on an undergraduate research project at UC Merced. “My work over the summer [at LLNL] with a similar project went a long way to prepare me for the project that I took on at UC Merced,” said Jason. This full-year fellowship, allowed Jason to connect with his Lab mentor, share about his work, receive feedback, and have guidance as he finished up his undergraduate studies. Jason is looking forward to exploring new opportunities in the field and is considering pursuing his graduate degree. 

Randy graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences and will be attending the University of Arizona to pursue his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. The novel research on drug toxicity that Randy conducted while at LLNL, Graph-based featurization methods for classifying small molecule compounds, was published in UC Merced’s Undergraduate Research Journal, and was the only Natural Sciences paper in the entire volume. “I’ve had such an amazing turnout from this fellowship, from being selected for best presentation at the Summer SLAM by the DSSI cohort, to publishing our research. It has truly been one of the best experiences I have ever had,” said Randy. His Lab mentor was a big support system for Randy throughout the school year. “I know that my experience with LLNL definitely helped highlight me as a favorable candidate,” added Randy. He will move to Arizona in July to begin his first year of vet school. 

As we bid adieu to Jason and Randy, we’re pleased to welcome our 2022-23 UC Merced Fellows, Phoebe Adamyan and Cristian Espinosa. This year, Phoebe will be working on a viral genomes project and Cristian will be working on gaming to support strategic competition decision making. We look forward to following the progress of our growing cohort of full-year fellows!