Program - Brookhaven National Laboratory

Nuclear structure, reaction and decay data have important applications in nuclear energy, national security,
and nuclear medicine. National security applications can be broadly characterized as stewardship science
and include homeland security, nuclear forensics, and non-proliferation, as well as stockpile stewardship.
The Stewardship Science Academic Alliance (SSAA) was inaugurated 10 years ago by the National Nuclear
Security Administration of the US Department of Energy to enhance connections between NNSA laboratories
and the activities of university scientists and their students in research areas important to NNSA,
including low-energy nuclear science. The SSAA supports the Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowships
and a large number of individual investigator projects, including one Center of Excellence in low-energy
nuclear science. SSAA research directions in low-energy nuclear science include: neutron, gamma, and
ion-induced reactions with stable and unstable nuclei, physics of the fission process, and properties of
prompt fission products. The present talk would present an overview of how the SSAA activities help to
educate early career low-energy nuclear scientists and prepare them for careers in applied and basic nuclear
structure, reaction and decay studies. This work is supported in part by the National Nuclear Security
Administration under the Stewardship Science Academic Alliances program through DOE Cooperative
Agreement No. DE-FG52-08NA28552.
PF 2 4:00 PM
The Davis-Bahcall Scholars Program: Instilling the Qualities of STEM Leadership in the
Youth of South Dakota
Peggy McMahan Norris
Black Hills State University, Sanford Underground Research Facility
The Davis-Bahcall and Summer Science Scholars programs are summer enrichment opportunities for highachieving
18- and 19-year-old students from South Dakota who are interested in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. The programs engage students during their transition from high
school into the first two years of university. With the generous support of 3M Corporation, the state of
South Dakota, South Dakota NSF EPSCoR, and the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium (funded by
NASA), the program reached 70 students during its first four years of full operation in 2009-2012, plus
a pilot phase in 2008. During the first four years of the program, various components of two-five week
programs were tested, including:
• One-two week sessions at Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, SD
• One-week trips to the CERN and/or Gran Sasso laboratories in Europe
• One-two week programs at Fermilab or Brookhaven National Laboratory (Department of Energy
laboratories)
• Three weeks academic study in physics at Princeton University, together with students from Italy
• Shorter visits to various laboratories and universities with projects in underground science or in
nuclear and high energy physics
A serious effort has been made to maintain contact with the students as they progress through their
undergraduate years, through the incentive of keeping them posted about internship opportunities. Surveys
of all participants are conducted annually, achieving response rates above 50%. Students show a high level of
interest and success in obtaining opportunities for undergraduate research either in their home institutions
or in summer programs elsewhere. 67% of students in the most recent survey plan to attend post graduate
243