On March 15, Berkeley Lab’s Physics and Nuclear Science Divisions hosted Lab tours and information sessions as part of the UC Berkeley Physics Department’s two-day open house event for prospective graduate students interested in pursuing research careers in nuclear and particle physics as well as cosmology.

Nikki Apadula, a research scientist in NSD’s Relativistic Nuclear Collisions Program, talks with student participants about Berkeley Lab’s ePic Detector. (Photo Credit: Liz Worthy, Berkeley Lab)

Brief overviews of several Berkeley Lab programs were presented by Physics Division researchers Tony Spadafora, Elisabetta Pianori, Simone Ferraro, and Aaron Manalaysay; and Nuclear Science Division (NSD) researchers Reiner Kruecken, Gabriel Orebi Gann, and Nikki Apadula. The 20 students who participated then toured several facilities – including the ATLAS, CCD, and CMB/DM/QIS Labs in Building 50; as well as the Neutrino, Dark Matter, and Semiconductor Detector Labs in Buildings 70 and 70A – to see these experiments firsthand and to talk with Berkeley Lab researchers about R&D activities.

“This event gives our staff members a chance to share their own excitement in research with prospective students and give them a quick overview of the wide range of research opportunities in the Lab’s world-leading program,” said Physics Division Deputy Tony Spadafora, who helped organize the tours and activities.