On Tuesday, January 26, 2021, the Department of Energy’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity (ED) hosted its winter session of the “Awareness, Interest and Access” webinar series featuring the Brookhaven National Laboratory which is one of the Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories. The webinar gave attendees a unique and comprehensive look into the broad array of current opportunities for minority serving institutions, minority business enterprises, faculty, and students.
The Brookhaven National Lab is important to this webinar series because of its commitment to providing equitable access to education. The lab offers opportunities for students starting at ground zero, with hands-on and application-based classroom resources, all the way to intensive internships for minority undergraduate/graduate students. For example, the lab offers opportunities such as the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI), the Community College Internship (CCI), and the Visiting Faculty Program (VFP). Other partner based programs include the NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and Professoriate and the NYS Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP). Below are the speakers in the order of their presentation:
- David Manning, Director, Stakeholder and Community Relations Office
- Maggie Sullivan, Manager of Talent Management team in the Human Resources Directorate
- Joseph Lee, Inclusion & Diversity Supervisor/Joint Appointments
- Priscilla Antunez, Center for Functional Nanomaterials
- Mary Rogers, Small Business Liaison, Procurement and Property Management Division
- Noel Blackburn, Manager, University Relations and DOE Internship Programs, Office of Educational Program.
The discussions included an overview of the lab’s resources and state-of-the-art facilities that allow it to address some of the most urgent scientific and logistical challenges our society faces today. For example, the Brookhaven Lab has housed numerous cutting-edge research reactors and particle accelerators. It has also been selected as the site for the proposed Electron-Ion Collider, a new flagship nuclear science facility that is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the internal structure of ordinary matter. These facilities, paired with the Laboratory’s 2,500+ staff members who work in multidisciplinary and diverse research teams, have led to 7 Nobel Prize winning discoveries, 37 R&D 100 Awards, and countless advances for science and society.
Also emphasized during the webinar session was the lab’s deep commitment to diversity and equity in their community. The BNL team believes that problems get solved faster in diverse and inclusive teams. All speakers prioritized collaboration and community, opportunities for a vast array of fields, including technicians, scientists, engineers, IT, management, postdocs, and project management.
For access to the recording and more events, please visit our Calendar and Events page.