April 22, 2020
Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) interns at Argonne National Laboratory contribute to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) project and advance in key STEM pipelines.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory’s ongoing Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) High School Internship Program has this year’s exceptionally bright high school students working on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment’s (DUNE) world-changing research. The projects are still in progress, but the interns have already made great progress in their work and as future STEM leaders.
Each Wednesday, IMSA juniors and seniors have the opportunity to conduct research on key STEM topics at Argonne. They advance Argonne’s study and take key steps toward professional STEM pathways. “Argonne’s Educational Programs office has had a long-standing relationship with IMSA,” Argonne Learning Center Instructor Azucena Rodriguez said. “Through these internships, we help students realize their full potential in STEM while advancing the Lab’s mission science.”
This year, IMSA juniors Diego Michel and Smriti Shankar assisted with DUNE, the largest particle physics project in the U.S. Michel, out of over a thousand current DUNE collaborators, is the only person classifying proton decay limits. “DUNE has incredible potential. It can tell when the universe was created,” Michel said. This knowledge affects our lives and how we think of things.”
Shankar is gathering data on waveforms of light from DUNE’s detectors. “My project has amazed me because there is still so much to learn that nobody knows yet,” she said. Shankar is considering a physics minor for the first time and hopes to do more research next year. “I have questions that I want answers to,” she explained. While my research might be centered on one thing, it is like a window into seeing other things, too.”
Physicist Zelimir Djurcic enjoys volunteering as a mentor for internships like the IMSA High School Internship because it gives students an authentic scientific research experience and prepares them for promising STEM careers. “We need a new generation of scientists,” he explained. “We want people who understand science and can talk about it and support it in the future.”
The internship continues through April, so the students still have more work. Even so, their mentors at Argonne are confident in their progress and proud of their research. Neutrino physicist Maury Goodman is excited about the growth in scientific understanding of neutrinos, which is in part due to his and other mentors’ interns. “We’ve gone from knowing almost nothing to almost everything,” he emphasized.
Goodman, who has mentored around 25-30 IMSA students over the years, appreciates the IMSA High School Internship’s role in students’ STEM growth and the Lab’s research, and he hopes that more scientists will be inspired to become involved with the program as mentors. “It’s a privilege to help encourage the next generation,” he said.
Funding for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is provided by the Department of Energy Office of Science’s Office of High Energy Physics.
