National Laboratories Ready to Train a Generation of Materials Researchers in Energy
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National Laboratories Ready to Train a Generation of Materials Researchers in Energy M. J. Demkowicz and M.A. With The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences (OBES) recently called for a commitment to training a generation of scientists dedicated to meeting the grand challenges for energy research.* Postdoctoral programs at U.S. national laboratories offer opportunities to gain the multidisciplinary background and “big picture” perspective required of aspiring energy scientists, which includes materials researchers. Several national laboratories support such programs, with employment numbers varying from a dozen to over three hundred (see Table I). Never theless, policymakers, funding agencies, researchers, and the public at large are often unaware that national laboratories are playing an increasingly important U.S. workforce development role through these programs. Postdoctoral appointments at national laboratories are highly competitive. For example, at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) an internal committee of scientists reviews the qualifications of every postdoctoral candidate. It also chooses individuals to be considered for Director’s or named (Oppenheimer, Feynman, Reines) fellowships. Consequently, a diverse, multinational population of scientists from top U.S. and non-U.S. universities (about 60% are non-U.S. citizens) joins the laboratory every year. Standard appointments last two years, although third-year extensions are usually possible. To ease their transition from academia, all postdoctoral candidates are matched with staff scientists as mentors—many of them world-renowned in their disciplines. According to OBES, future energy researchers must “communicate effectively with scientists in all of the disciplines * U.S. Department of Energy, A Report from the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Com mittee (December 20, 2007; www.science.doe.gov/bes/ reports/files/GC_rpt.pdf) (accessed April 2009).
Table I: U.S. National Laboratories that Support Postdoctoral Programs in Energy (numbers as of May 2009) National Laboratory
# of Postdoctoral Researchers Lawrence Berkeley 377 Los Alamos 330 Argonne 171 Oak Ridge 168 Sandia 154 Brookhaven 125 Lawrence Livermore 113 Pacific Northwest 111 National Renewable Energy 85 Fermi 55 Ames 45 Idaho 17 Savannah River 14 Jet Propulsion Laboratory 12 New Brunswick 1
underpinning BES research: condensedmatter and materials physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, and areas of earth and atmospheric sciences” and be expert in at least one of them. Postdoctoral candidates working at national laboratories perform world-class research in all of these areas, as illustrated, for example, by the distinguished performance and publication awards made over the past five years at Los Alamos National Laboratory. † Furthermore, because research at national laboratories is often performed in teams † Los Alamos Postdoc Association, www.lanl. gov/science/postdocs/awards_prizes.shtml (accessed April 2009).
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