My experience during the past two summers working in the Computational Research Division at
Berkeley Lab has been extremely rewarding and has shaped my future plans. My faculty mentor
was unable to work at the lab with me due to prior commitments, which was difficult at first, but I
was able to quickly adjust due to the welcoming environment and my supportive supervisor.
During my first summer, I worked with a team to develop a Python package for computationally
efficient image reconstructions. Our code has since been able to outperform state-of-the-art
reconstruction packages that are used at a lot of the National Labs and other facilities. We were
able to publish a paper and are continuing to expand on the project as we draft a second paper
and present at conferences about the scientific impact of this work.
I am extremely lucky to have been given the chance to work at Berkeley Lab for two summers
(and hopefully more)! Working with incredible scientists on my project has helped me shape my
plan to attend graduate school and pursue a career in research. To any student who is
considering applying to the program: do it! The environment at Berkeley Lab is a great place to
become an independent student, and this is possible by being proactive and developing
connections with people around you. Working at Berkeley Lab has been one of the best
experiences I’ve had in my academic career, and I would highly encourage everyone to apply.
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