Tag Archive : Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Summer 5Q: Justine Missik Pulls Double Duty with Research Projects

July 29, 2010 | 5Q, News, People, Research, Students, Summer, WKU | No Comments

Justine Missik
Justine Missik

Rising senior Justine Missik (Boyle, ‘11) is having quite a summer! Justine is one of eleven recipients of the Gatton Academy’s Research Internship Grant, which is available to Gatton Academy students in the summer between their junior and senior years to support students during research experiences.

Missik split her award on two separate experiences. In the early summer, she traveled to Portland, Oregon to attend the Santa Fe Institute’s course on Exploring Complexity in Science and Technology from May 19 -21. This course directly benefits the research work that Justine is performing in theoretical systems ecology and network analysis while at the Gatton Academy with Dr. Albert Meier of WKU’s Department of Biology. Later this summer, she’ll be presenting this research at the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) Annual Meeting in Pittsburg, PA.

Before that meeting, Missik is spending the rest of her summer working with Dr. Stuart Campbell with the Department of Energy’s Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)–the world’s most powerful pulsed spallation neutron source. Missik is benefiting from access to world-renowned facilities and experts as she interns at ORNL. She is the first Gatton Academy student to perform research directly with the ORNL.

Justine recently took a break from her research work with the ORNL to answer some questions on her research experience.

1. Tell us a little about the project or program in which you are participating this summer that the Research Internship Grant is funding.

This summer I am working at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I am working on developing a user interface for numerical analysis code on protein dynamics. I will then use this to analyze some data.

2. What is the part of the summer experience you are enjoying most?

I have really enjoyed being at Oak Ridge and meeting people who work there. It has been a great opportunity to be able to work at world-class laboratory! I have also really enjoyed working on a project that I know will be useful to the scientists there.

3. How is this different from the way you think most high school students spend their summers?

Most high school students don’t usually have the kind of opportunities for summer research that the Academy provides, so they aren’t usually involved in research projects. The Academy has provided me with the unique opportunity to work at Oak Ridge, which I would not have been able to do otherwise.

4. Will you be using this research experience as a launching point for any particular applications, competitions, or scholarships?

I’m not currently planning on using this project to enter any competitions, but I am sure the skills and experience I will gain will greatly benefit me.

5. How does this research experience or internship fit into your educational and professional goals?

Though I’m not quite sure yet about what particular field I will want to work in, I know that I want to go into science. I also know that I enjoy working with computers, and this is useful in a variety of different fields. I also plan on continuing to do research. The experience I will gain this summer will help me with all of these things.

6. What are you looking forward to the most about your second year at the Academy?

In my second year at the academy, I am looking forward to being able to take more higher-level classes, such as Computer Science II and Discrete Math. I am also looking forward to continuing my research project from last year.

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By Corey Alderdice

[Random Wandering] Neutrons, Networking, and New Possibilities

November 25, 2009 | News, Staff | No Comments

Tim Gott

by Tim Gott, Academy Director

What will the future look like?  I have been asking myself that question a lot these last few days.  It has been quite a week.  I have had the pleasure of meeting with peers from Vanderbilt, of discussing opportunities with leaders and decision makers from other state universities, of exploring potential partnerships with a leading industry in the Commonwealth, and of viewing a sample of the incredible scientific legacy of one of our finest national laboratories.  Each experience has fueled a fire within me to spread a gospel of hope.  We are living in one of the greatest times in history.  The accumulation of knowledge, the depth of resources, and the amazing creativity of the human mind have never been more primed than this moment in time.  Yet, we as a society have allowed ourselves to be distracted or discouraged from embracing this phenomenal opportunity.

As I walked through the offices of Lexmark and the labs of Oak Ridge, alongside students and colleagues, I was able to glimpse how far we have come in terms of technology and innovation in just the short span of my lifetime.  Simultaneously, I envisioned what the future will hold in the hands of these students.  I saw the light of promise in their eyes as they viewed the most powerful computer ever created and heard them discuss the next generation of possibilities.  I was moved by the passion I saw in the present leaders of these organizations and how it infused the lives of these future world changers, inspiring them to believe in the abundance of potential before them.

With this bold vision, comes a responsibility.  We who have seen the power of the present environment must convince those who have lost hope that the best is yet to come.  We must equip this generation of young people to engage in creative and critical thinking, to ask the insightful questions, and to persevere through challenges and setbacks.  We need to encompass them with a spirit of support and encouragement which will allow them to explore, to dream, to experiment, and yes, to stumble and fall.  For it is in the arena of trial and error, failed attempts, and renewed efforts that we will find those concepts, ideas, and creations that will impact our lives in the days ahead.

What will our future look like?  Cures for cancer and other illnesses?  What new forms of communication and transportation will arise?  What deeper understandings of our universe or the atom will we grasp?  If we will take the time to learn from our past, we can see that the rate of change in our lives is exponential.  In a relatively short time, we have embraced cell phones, internet, space travel, MRIs, and microwaves as common place.  The next ten years will be mind-boggling.  But the time is now, the place is here, and we are the ones who will do it.  The challenge is before us.  We have a choice: we can invest our time and energy in the meaningful work before us or we can waste our resources and the gains of our predecessors.  Let’s choose wisely and pass a bright torch forward to the ones ahead.

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By Corey Alderdice