Education News

Collin Broholm joins ORNL's Neutron Sciences

Collin Broholm, a leader in the international neutron scattering community, recently joined ORNL's Neutron Sciences Directorate (NScD) as a joint faculty appointment with Johns Hopkins University. He will spend approximately 25% of his time working at ORNL.

Broholm is a professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Physics and Astronomy and Director of the Johns Hopkins–Princeton Institute for Quantum Matter. An experimental physicist in the field of hard condensed matter, he concentrates on anomalous forms of magnetism, superconductivity, and the interplay of the two. For this work he received the 2010 sustained research prize of the Neutron Scattering Society of America. Broholm has served on numerous committees overseeing instrument development at neutron scattering facilities, including the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor at ORNL, Helmholtz Zentrum in Berlin, and the NIST Center for Neutron Research. He also served on the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and the Condensed Matter and Materials Research Committee of the National Research Council. Full article ...

Development Programs for Teachers

Siemens Teachers as Researchers (STaRs)

For this nationwide professional development program, Neutron Sciences hosts 20 middle school and high school science and math teachers for two-week research experiments at ORNL. The program is part of a larger initiative called the Siemens STEM Academy, designed to advance science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the United States.

Academies Creating Teacher-Scientists Professional Development Program (ACTS)

Through ACTS, teachers from all over the United States come to ORNL for three consecutive summers to participate in research with leading scientists. The teachers gain valuable knowledge and experience that they can take back to their own schools. The three-year investment gives teachers a sustained opportunity to learn and make a difference at the Lab and with their students back home. Elaine Custer – a physics, math, and computational sciences teacher from Karns City, Pennsylvania – worked with scientists at the SNS TOPAZ instrument. Read an interview with her about her experience.

Opportunities for Students

We have a range of exciting programs for postdoctoral, college, and high school students. In recent years, we’ve hosted more than 40 interns each summer and a dozen postdoctoral students. Our first two Shull fellows were selected in 2006, and we now support six researchers whose specialties range from physics to materials science to nuclear science and engineering. Year-round internships are also available. For more information and to view open positions, see the ORNL jobs site. Applicants need not be U.S. citizens.

Local Community

An important goal for us is to share with the local community the importance of neutron science and the potential benefits it could have on the world around us. Staff are actively involved in educational programs for local students from elementary school through high school and college age. Programs range from presentations about the important role neutron science plays in our everyday lives to workshops and hands-on activities about "the science" of neutron science. Presentations are also made to local civic organizations such as rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, and political groups.

Scientific Community

Because not all scientists are familiar with neutron science—specifically neutron scattering science—every year we host a variety of seminars and workshops to educate participants on how neutron scattering can benefit their research. These programs range from workshops focusing on particular neutron scattering techniques to instrument-specific workshops to highlight the capabilities of individual instruments.

Almost all of these events are open to the public and are listed on our events calendar. Slides from presentations and tutorials are available on our past events page.