Fostering Great Minds and Great Ideas

The third round of the Fostering Great Minds tour was the biggest. It reached the most institutions as well as included the largest number of representatives from the national labs. In mid-February 2024, Director Berhe, along with 29 representatives from 15 national labs, embarked on a multi-part visit throughout the Southwest. The group first visited two Hispanic serving institutions (HSIs): University of Texas El Paso and New Mexico State University. In these places, they built relationships with rooms full of curious and energized students and faculty. Steve Cowley, director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab (PPPL) remarked how incredibly useful it was to “forge new collaborations with faculty and students in Texas and New Mexico” and that it was exciting to access “new talent to push forward PPPL’s mission.” 

The southwest trip continued on to Phoenix, Arizona. Here, the group visited two projects funded by the Office of Science’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research. The Southwest Urban Integrated Field Lab led by Arizona State University (ASU) focuses its research on helping the public respond to extreme heat. The newly launched Climate Resilience Center out of Northern Arizona University (NAU) works to empower local and Indigenous communities to adapt to challenges from climate change.  

While visiting these large institutions, the group also made time for three stops at minority serving community colleges with large Hispanic and Native American populations: Estrella Mountain Community College, South Mountain Community College, and Coconino Community College. In addition, at NAU, the group met with representatives from Diné College.  

Stephen Streiffer, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was impressed by the enthusiasm of both the students and faculty. “The diversity of the portfolio and the interconnections on climate science represented by ASU and NAU – from the desert to the pine forests of the mountains – was amazing,” he said. “The rich engagement of ASU, NAU, and Coconino Community College – in particular the institutions’ engagement with their Native American communities – and the perspective this provides on how the DOE and the national labs can best connect to their goals, will be crucial.” 

These trips left a great impact on each of the representatives from the national labs, as well as on the universities’ students and faculty. The goal of the Fostering Great Minds tour was not a one-time outreach effort to a handful of universities. It is establishing the building blocks of a long-term relationship between the DOE’s national lab complex and institutions across the nation that serve communities that are minoritized in STEM. 

The seeds of these relationships are already growing from the earliest visits. After the October 2023 trip to Atlanta, a national lab has invited a professor from one of the colleges to give a guest lecture. In addition, multiple labs are working on building a workforce pipeline from one of the universities with specific programs. Lastly, there has been an uptick in applications for undergraduate internships from the schools that were visited.  

We at DOE’s Office of Science are excited to see where these new connections go and the impact these trips will continue to have into the future, fostering great minds and great ideas in our country. 

Author: Rebecca Gruener is a AAAS fellow in the Office of Science. She has a background in atmospheric science with a PhD in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University ’21.

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