Ames Laboratory Scientists Leave Their Mark on Future Researchers

Newswise — Eight out of the past 10 years, Ames Laboratory chemist Aaron Sadow has mentored a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) student. Sometimes the mentorship has been for the 10-week summer program and sometimes for the 16-week semester program. On occasion, he’s mentored more than one student at a time.

The SULI program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science supports paid internships for undergraduates in science and engineering at DOE laboratories. The students work with laboratory staff scientists and engineers on projects related to ongoing research programs.

When asked why he keeps returning as a mentor for the SULI program, Sadow responds, “SULI is an excellent program for everyone involved. Mentors benefit from having the opportunity to help train future scientists to do great science. Graduate students benefit from having the opportunity to work with excited undergraduate students, and SULI interns benefit from research experiences that generate discoveries that may result in published research papers and additional DOE research funding for the mentor’s program.”

Including Sadow’s students, Ames Laboratory scientists have thus far hosted over 280 students and faculty from 34 universities, colleges and community colleges around the country. When the Laboratory’s 2016 summer internship programs begin in late May that number will grow to over 300 participants. Holding a close second to Sadow’s impressive record of commitment to Ames Laboratory’s science internship programs is scientist Javier Vela. But in addition to hosting several SULI students, for the past six years Vela has also hosted two Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) teams, which consist of a faculty member and students. Through direct collaboration with research staff at DOE host laboratories, VFP provides opportunities for faculty and students to develop skills applicable to programs at their home institutions, which in turn helps increase the STEM workforce in DOE mission science areas at institutions historically underrepresented within the DOE research enterprise.“It is only because of this program, that we’ve have had an opportunity to collaborate with the principal investigators at these institutions,” says Vela, who was a 2014 recipient of the Stanley C. Israel Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in Chemical Sciences. “And most of the students we’ve hosted would never have thought about coming here. They’ve been able to learn more about our Laboratory, our university, Iowa, and Ames. It’s been a good experience all-around.”

Javier Grajeda, a SULI intern in 2011, epitomizes the importance of internship programs like VFP that are focused on diversity. Vela met Grajeda, a student at the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) at an Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference. A discussion of Vela’s work in inorganic chemistry piqued Grajeda’s interest so he applied for the summer SULI program in 2011. In the span of that short internship, Grajeda coauthored a paper with one of Vela’s graduate students, which was published in the journal Chemistry of Materials. In addition to working in his lab, Vela says Grajeda also continued working with scientists at UTEP and then traveled to China to do research. When it was time to apply for graduate school for his PhD in chemistry, Grajeda was accepted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the same time, he was awarded a highly competitive three-year fellowship through the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. When asked about the key to his success, Grajeda said, “Working under Dr. Vela has had a great impact on my career, and I’m grateful for having been given the opportunity to participate in the SULI program.”

Although he would have preferred to have had Grajeda enter graduate school at Iowa State, Vela takes a long view of the situation and says ultimately “everyone wins with the DOE’s internship programs because they help facilitate the growth of students like Grajeda, who may one day wind up working as scientists at DOE laboratories.

Ames Laboratory scientist Igor Slowing, who has mentored 10 SULI students since 2012, echoes Vela’s comments. Slowing says internships offered through SULI, VFP and Community College Internship (CCI) programs are a “good advertisement” for Ames Laboratory. “What we are doing in the DOE’s labs is communicated to more people, which in turn helps universities and communities learn more about the DOE and its national labs, which then helps the American taxpayer understand what we’re doing with their taxpayer dollars,” says Slowing.

Ames Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies and energy solutions. We use our expertise, unique capabilities and interdisciplinary collaborations to solve global problems.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.