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Nuclear Science Division

Making Rad Maps With Robot Dogs

In 2013, researchers carried a Microsoft Kinect camera through houses in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture. The device’s infrared light traced the contours of the buildings, making a rough 3D map. On top of this, the team layered information from an early version of a hand-held gamma-ray imager, displaying the otherwise invisible nuclear radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident.

Fragments

NSD has received two DOE NP funding awards for two-year projects focussed on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Heather Crawford of the Low Energy Nuclear Physics program will continue to lead a project developing new methods to optimize the performance of the GRETA spectrometer and the VENUS ion source, while Peter Jacobs from the Relativistic Nuclear Collisions program will lead a multi-disciplinary project to develop and deploy novel methods for Bayesian inference and uncertainty quantification.  Further details can be found here.

NSD will also collaborate on a newly awarded DOE Nuclear Data project to develop the Berkeley Atlas: a database of absolute cross sections for inelastic, gamma-ray production with 14 MeV neutrons.  The project will be led by Johns Hopkins University.  The LBNL contribution will be led by Arun Persuad from the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division (ATAP) with Lee Bernstein serving as the NSD lead.

Over the summer, several DOE Highlights featured NSD research, from the final results of the MAJORANA Demonstrator experiment, Lattice QCD results on neutrino-nucleon interaction, and the first observations of the flow patterns of hypernuclei in heavy ion collisions by the STAR collaboration. 

In August, NSD Faculty Senior Scientist Barbara Jacak hosted a meeting of the California Electron-Ion Collider consortium.  The meeting, which was held on the campus of UC Berkeley, brought together more than fifty physicists from five universities and three national laboratories to coordinate research on physics, calorimetry, and tracking in California.

Also in August, Brian Quiter from NSD’s Applied Nuclear Physics program hosted a workshop on Radiological Data Fusion.  The workshop was organized in coordination with DOE NNSA Office of Defence Nonproliferation Research and Development (NA-22) and discussed recent advances and future needs associated with the fusion of radiological and contextual data for nuclear nonproliferation.  The workshop was attended by more than forty participants from national laboratories and government agencies.

NSD researcher Bjoern Lehnert has been awarded the 2022 Outstanding Mentor Award by the Berkeley Lab Workforce Development and Education program.  Bjoern, who is a Project Scientist in the Neutrinos program, received the award for his mentorship of a student from a minority serving institution through the NSD-led GREAT-NS initiative.  Bjoern will formally receive his award at a ceremony on October 3rd.

Zhenyu Ye (pictured left) has joined NSD as a Divisional Fellow in the Relativistic Nuclear Collisions program.  Zhenyu joins LBNL from The University of Illinois, Chicago and brings a wealth of experience in the development of novel particle tracking detectors.

Shujie Li of the Relativistic Nuclear Collisions program was promoted from Postdoctoral Researcher to Research Scientist.

NSD also welcomes new hires Karthika Balan (Sr. Scientific Engineering Associate), Yuxun Guo (Postdoctoral Researcher), and Thomas MacDonald (Sr. Scientific Engineering Associate).  We also welcome Julia Dreyling and Snehadri Das who are interns with the GREAT-NS and SULI programs, respectively.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability Moments

IDEA-Related Efforts and Resources within NSD

Periodically, it is worthwhile to highlight some of the ongoing efforts within the Nuclear Science Division addressing IDEA topics, and the resources available in NSD and at LBNL more broadly.  With each year our staff are engaged more and more in bringing IDEA principles to the forefront of our division culture.

NSD IDEA Council – The NSD IDEA Council is an all volunteer council tasked with engaging the division in IDEA activities aligned with lab-wide efforts, contributing to the growth of IDEA activities and awareness and promoting a fair, safe and inclusive workplace.  This is done through the IDEA minute for NSD staff meetings and efforts pushing forward broader and longer-term initiatives.  Any NSD staff interested in working with the NSD IDEA Council should reach out to nsd-idea-council@lbl.gov.

Physical Science Workplace Life Committee (PSWLC) – The PSWLC is a committee of representatives from across the Physical Sciences Area at LBNL with support from Human Resources that works to explore and address issues affecting workplace quality of life for the area.  This committee addresses challenging topics such as childcare for LBNL employees, work-life balance and promotion guidelines among many others.  For more information and to provide input to the PSWLC visit the website.

Luminary Card Program – The Luminary Card Program within NSD is a program for peer-to-peer recognition of actions and efforts in support of fostering an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace climate.  Anyone in NSD can give one (a physical card, or a virtual one!) to a colleague within NSD or elsewhere in the lab or broader research community.  For more information and to access a virtual luminary card visit the website.

Under-Represented Minority Targeted Job Posting Boards – Since early 2021 NSD has made available special funding to cover the cost of posting jobs on minority-targeted job posting boards.  All hiring managers in the division should talk with their HR recruiter about making use of these funds to advertise position openings in the division.

Outreach and Education – Individual staff in NSD are engaged with LBNL-wide education and outreach programs through the K-12 STEM Education programs and LBNL volunteer portal.  In addition to the efforts of individuals, NSD leads events including the Nuclear Science Day for Scouts, which held  its 11th annual event on September 30th, with the help of a broad range of staff from all corners of NSD. 

Luminary Cards

To recognize their efforts in the area(s) of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability, the following people received a Luminary Card: Tyler Hague