Inspiring the Next Generation of STEM Leaders
STEM Education & Outreach
In partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Science Education Program, LLF supports STEM education and outreach programs in the greater Bay Area. The Foundation works to connect students with the Lab’s world-class innovation, technology and research capabilities through meaningful hands-on learning experiences.
Several of LLF’s programs directly benefit students in the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, as a way to give back and inspire the community that has supported LLNL since 1952.
Fellowship & Internship Opportunities
Through academic, community, and professional partnerships, LLF offers fellowship and internship opportunities for undergraduate through post doctoral scholars at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. LLF provides direct student funding, allowing more time for research, studies, and ultimate success in scientific careers, and supports interns with assigned Lab mentors and access to LLNL facilities and resources. Special focus is on students from diverse and underrepresented populations in STEM fields. LLF funding covers research-related equipment, conferences, travel, living expenses, and related costs not covered by LLNL.
Opening the Door to STEM Experiences
- Carbon Fellowship
- Data Science Fellow
- Fusion Fellowship
- High Energy Density Science Fellowship
- John S. Foster Jr. Undergraduate Fellowship
- Kim Cupps STEM Fellowship
- Los Positas College Internship
- Life Science Fellowship
- SMASH Rising Scholar-Intern
- UC Merced Fellowship
- High School STEM Workshop/Internship
- Girls Who Code 'BIG'
- LLF STEM Fellow Alumni
- STEM Speaker Series
- Summer SLAM - Special Edition
2022-23 LLF Fellows
UC Merced
UC Merced Full-Year Fellow
Meet Phoebe, full-year UC Merced Fellow studying Bioengineering. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she worked on a viral genomes project that analyzes biological sequences of viruses to characterize virus populations, evolution and adaptation.
Florida A&M University
HEDS Fellow
Meet Adeola, HEDS Fellow, is working towards his PhD at Florida A&M University. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he worked on Optimization of bremsstrahlung X-rays from laser-plasma interaction.
University of Michigan
HEDS Fellow
Meet Andre, HEDS Fellow, who is a PhD student in Applied Physics at the University of Michigan. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he worked to characterize hot electrons in ensemble PIC simulations of high-intensity, laser-plasma interactions with machine learning.
UC Santa Cruz
SMASH Scholar Intern
Meet Gabriella, SMASH Scholar-Intern, who is majoring in Human Biology at UC Santa Cruz . This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she developed, implemented & evaluated health & education resources to improve the Lab’s employee wellness programs.
Florida A&M University
HEDS Fellow
Meet Jerry, HEDS Fellow, who is a physics PhD candidate at Florida A&M University, and who has been a fellow with LLF since 2018. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he investigated electron-ion equilibration using time-dependent Stark broadening.
UC Berkeley
HEDS Fellow
Meet Alexis, HEDS Fellow, studying Applied Mathematics at UC Berkeley. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she worked to visualize magnetic fields using machine learning.
UC Merced
UC Merced Full-Year Fellow
Meet Cristian, full-year UC Merced Fellow, who is studying Computer Science and Engineering. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he used gaming to support strategic competition decision making.
Stanford University
HEDS Fellow
Meet Jhonnatan, HEDS Fellow, who is working towards his PhD at Stanford University. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he conducted research on laser-driven ion acceleration.
UC Merced
HEDS Fellow
Meet Sheindel, HEDS Fellow, who is an undergraduate student at UC Merced. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, her research focused on quantum computing.
The Ohio State Univeristy
HEDS Fellow
Meet Andrew, HEDS Fellow, who is a PhD student at The Ohio State University. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he worked on including a Quantum Hydrodynamics (QHD) model in a Poisson solver for radiation hydrodynamics.
Purdue University
HEDS Fellow
Meet Girik, HEDS Fellow, who is studying nuclear engineering at Purdue University. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he worked on 1D simulations of high intensity laser heated nanotubes.
UC Irvine
SMASH Scholar Intern
Meet Samantha, SMASH Scholar Intern, who is a physics major at University of California, Irvine. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she ported the Energy Exascale Earth Model (E3SM) & the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM) to the Spack package manager.
UC Santa Cruz
Kim Cupps Fellow
Meet our first Kim Cupps Fellow, Laurie. She is working towards a BS in computer science at UC Santa Cruz. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Laurie worked to assist with research and implantation of algorithms related to defending the nation’s power grid through Cyber Security.
Stanford University
HEDS Fellow
Meet Kaden, HEDS Fellow, who is a PhD student at Stanford University. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he conducted research on multi-species magnetized plasma simulations in LAPD geometry.
UC Merced
Life Science Fellow
Meet LLF’s first Life Science Fellow, Kyle Magro, who is studying Biological Sciences at UC Merced. This past summer while at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he worked to understand the molecular mechanisms of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) through lattice light sheet microscopy.
UC San Diego
HEDS Fellow
Meet Isabella, HEDS Fellow, who is studying Chemical Engineering at UC San Diego. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she worked to create a one-dimensional H-Model.
UC Merced
Carbon Fellow
Meet Darren, Carbon Fellow, who is majoring in Computer Science and Engineering at UC Merced. This past summer while at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he conducted carbon dioxide removal data analyses to support communities tackling climate change.
University of Oklahoma
Carbon Fellow
Meet Daniel, Carbon Fellow, who is pursuing two MS degrees at the The University of Oklahoma in Petroleum Engineering and Data Science & Analytics. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he assessed the integrity of existing wellbores to inform proposed geologic CO2 storage projects.
UC Berkeley
HEDS Fellow
Meet Mercedes, HEDS Fellow, who is a PhD student in Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she worked on a high-pressure study of iron meteorites.
Watch Mercedes discuss applications of NIF experiments:
https://youtu.be/gMaKhXkihGQ.
UC Merced
Carbon Fellow
Meet Levi, Carbon Fellow, who is studying Mechanical Engineering at UC Merced. This past summer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he designed a CO2 Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) system for a theoretical site that would be relevant to geologic CO2 storage in California.
Fellow Testimonials
Featured LLF Alumni Success Stories
Jose Garcia-Esparza
UC Merced Fellow
2020-2021
“Over the course of the past year I’ve attained more knowledge and experiences in the field of computer science than I have since beginning my undergraduate career. These experiences have prepared me not only for graduate school but a professional career as well. During the summer I participated in DSSI which allowed me to work under intelligent scientists and collaborate with fellow interns. Here I had access to awesome computing resources which allowed me to conduct research in a depth I never thought possible. I worked under Computer Scientist Brian Gallagher who never failed to provide me with knowledge and wisdom whenever possible. Upon the completion of the DSSI internship, I continued part time as an intern but shifted my focus on getting into graduate school. For the next several months thanks to funding from the Livermore Lab Foundation, I was able to pursue academic interests, prepare for GRE examinations, and submit applications to fellowships and graduate programs. In these applications I emphasized the impact of the DSSI internship which I believe allowed me to receive 6 graduate admissions and a fellowship from the National GEM Consortium. Thanks to the scholarship from the Livermore Lab Foundation experiences at Lawrence Livermore, I’m now set to begin graduate studies this Fall at the University of Southern California.”
Teagan Zuniga
UC Merced Fellow
2020-2021
“The Livermore Lab Foundation Fellowship gave me a generous monthly stipend and an opportunity to work with great minds at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Working with my mentor, Yana Feldman, gave me great insight into what a potential career at LLNL would look like. In addition, the individuals at LLF and LLNL propelled me to continue my academic career. As a low-income and first-generation student, this opportunity allowed me to focus on my school work and graduate applications in a way that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. As a result of this fellowship experience and the support from those at LLF and LLNL, I will be returning to the lab this summer as a Global Security Graduate Student Intern and attending UC Merced as a PhD political science student in the fall. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey!”
Alan Noun
Cal State East Bay Fellow
2019-2020
“My LLNL mentors provided me with a concise breakdown of how the different parts of my project worked, as well as resources for learning about the tools we were using. Like most software engineers, my approach was to explore the plethora of resources available online to see how other engineers had resolved similar challenges. My mentors gave me a lot of freedom to solve the problems on my own. But they were always extremely helpful whenever I hit a brick wall. By the end of the summer, I was finally able to get my research project up and running.
I’ve learned a lot during my tenure at LLNL. My biggest takeaway is that you should always take the time to fully understand a problem before tackling it, because making assumptions based on imprecise knowledge will cause you to go down a bottomless rabbit hole searching for answers that may well be wrong. To get the right answers, you need to ask the right questions.”
Latest STEM News
This summer, the Livermore Lab Foundation welcomed three college students as Early Intern Program Fellows at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who graduated from Livermore and Tracy high schools.
The achievement of ignition by LLNL in December 2022 was groundbreaking. Moving beyond that to the nation’s decadal vision of commercial fusion energy will require, among other things, creating pathways and opportunities for the next generation to work in fusion. In 2023, the Foundation launched an inaugural Fusion Fellowship opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to work with the Inertial Fusion Energy team at LLNL. This summer, LLF was pleased to bring two more fusion fellows to the Lab.
UC Climate Entrepreneurs Fellows
Four UC Climate Entrepreneurs Fellows, recruited by the LLF, came to LLNL for the Summer of 2024 to collaborate with Lab researchers. Students received training, networking, and coaching on entrepreneurship and product development best practices designed to innovate and develop their technology ideas for market.
LLF – SIAM Undergraduate Fellowship
During the summer of 2023, LLF partnered with the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics to support undergraduate students seeking to advance their applied mathematics skills in a world-class research facility addressing some of society’s greatest scientific and technological challenges.
Thank you to our STEM program partners!
