Preparing tomorrow’s scientists and engineers
Joseph Labrum, a Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship student at PPPL last summer, holds a bubble detector. (Photo by Elle Starkman/ PPPL)
Inspiring future leaders of the scientific community is a key goal of the Science Education department at PPPL. Our year-around activities include summer and semester-long Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) programs and summer and semester-long high school internships. The SULI summer program begins with a week-long course in plasma physics and fusion energy that prepares undergraduate students to conduct research, under the guidance of scientists and engineers, in support of PPPL programs. Spring and fall semester-long programs begin directly with research and last about 16 weeks.
The high-school summer program offers a limited number of paid internships for outstanding seniors, providing the opportunity to work on a project with a member of our physics or engineering staff. Spring and fall semester internships provide similar opportunities for some 16 weeks. Students who complete a high school summer or semester internship are eligible to apply for the SULI program as well.
For questions about the PPPL SULI program, please contact Deedee Ortiz at: dortiz@pppl.gov.
For questions about the high school internship programs, please contact Shannon Greco at: sgreco@pppl.gov.
Matthew Parsons. (Photo by Eliot Feibush/ PPPL)
From SULI to Fulbright grantee to graduate school
Matthew Parsons, a two-time intern at PPPL under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program, went on to become a Fulbright grantee conducting plasma physics research at ITER, the international fusion facility being built in France. Today he is a graduate student in nuclear engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
As a SULI intern in 2014 and 2015, Parsons worked on software codes that simulated fusion plasmas and predicted their disruption. He was a Drexel University physics student at the time. After graduating in 2015 he spent a year at PPPL conducting research that began during his second SULI internship — work that he continued at ITER. “The SULI program is a fantastic opportunity for undergraduate students to get research experience at a national laboratory,” Parsons said. “The program solidified my interest in fusion research, and fusion is why I’m going to Illinois.”