Dr. Rebecca Abergel is the Heavy Element Chemistry Group Leader within the Chemical Sciences Division at LBNL, and an Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering.  She received her B.S. in Chemistry from the Universite Pierre & Marie Curie (Paris, France) and her Ph.D. in Bio-inorganic Chemistry from UC Berkeley.  Dr. Abergel's research is at the interface of coordination chemistry, nuclear chemistry, radiochemistry, photophysics, chemical biology, health physics, pharmacology and molecular and cellular biology.  

Dr. Nicole Apadula is a research scientist in the Nuclear Science Division at LBNL.  She received her B.A. in Astrophysics from Colgate University and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics from Stony Brook University.  Her research interests are in high-energy, heavy-ion collisions with a focus on instrumentation.  Her current research focuses on the design and construction of the silicon tracker for the upcoming EPIC detector at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).  

Dr. Lee Bernstein is the Bay Area Nuclear Data Group Leader at LBNL and the UC-Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering.   He has over 25 years of experience in experimental nuclear physics with a specialization in measuring low-energy nuclear properties and cross sections.  Dr. Bernstein is also an Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering where he teaches Nuclear Physics and Special Topics courses in Nuclear Security, Nuclear-Plasma Physics and the Origins of the Elements in Astrophysical Settings.  

Dr. Heather Crawford is a staff scientist in the Nuclear Structure Group within the Nuclear Science Division at LBNL.  She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry at Simon Fraser University (in Burnaby, British Columbia), and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from Michigan State University.  Her interests are in studying the structure of the most exotic atomic nuclei, and in developing the instrumentation necessary to perform the most sensitive measurements.  Crawford is part of the project team developing GRETA, a next-generation gamma-ray spectrometer for nuclear science.

Dr. Nicholas Esker is a new professor at San José State University, where he teaches physical chemistry and researches nuclear chemistry.  He is currently working to build up the targetry capabilities at SJSU, focusing on specialized methods for thin film production and characterization.  Before he joined SJSU, he studied at TRIUMF (in Vancouver, British Columbia) and LBNL.  If you're interested in learning more, please feel free to visit his website:  sjsu.edu/esker or sending him an email:  nicholas.esker@sjsu.edu

Dr. Jacklyn Gates received her B.S. in chemistry from Westminster College in 2004 and her Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. She held a postdoctoral research position at the Technical University of Munich and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research before joining the Berkeley Lab staff in 2010. She is currently the group leader for the Heavy Element Group in the Nuclear Science Division at Berkeley Lab. Her interests are in studying the production, chemistry and nuclear structure of the heaviest elements.

Dr. Bethany Goldblum is a staff scientist in the Nuclear Science Division at LBNL and an associate research engineer in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley.   Goldblum received a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley.  Her research concentrates on low-energy nuclear physics, neutron detection, artificial intelligence for national security applications, and nuclear weapons policy. Goldblum leads the Bay Area Neutron Group, a research team focused on applied neutron physics for nuclear security applications, and founded and directs the Nuclear Policy Working Group, an interdisciplinary team of scholars developing policy solutions to strengthen global nuclear security. 

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Merced.  Mitchell received a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University, and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.  His research addresses fundamental questions in non-linear dynamics and classical/quantum chaos, with applications to atomic and molecular physics.   

Alan Poon received his BSc and PhD degrees from the University of British Columbia. He joined Berkeley Lab in1998, and is currently the Program Head of the Neutrinos Program and the Deputy Director of the Lab’s Nuclear Science Division. After contributing to the award-winning Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) and KamLAND experiments that demonstrated neutrino oscillations in the solar and reactor neutrinos, he and his colleagues of the Neutrino Astrophysics Group have been exploring the mass properties of neutrinos in the MAJORANA, LEGEND, and KATRIN experiments, as well as implementing radiation detection technologies in other fields. He is passionate about science outreach and education, and organizes the annual Nuclear Science Day for Scouts event at Berkeley Lab.

Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Dr. Rodney Orford is a senior scientific engineering associate in the Heavy Element Group in the Nuclear Science Division at Berkeley Lab. He studied physics at McGill University (in Montreal, Quebec), first earning a B.Sc. in 2012 and later receiving a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 2018. He conducted his graduate school research at Argonne National Lab as part of the ion trapping group with a focus on making precision mass measurements relevant to nuclear astrophysics. He joined Berkeley Lab in 2019.

Dr. Jennifer Pore's research interests are at the intersections of chemistry and nuclear physics. Presently she has been focused on new isotope discoveries, spectroscopy measurements, and chemical measurements utilizing nuclear reactions. Pore received her B.S. in chemistry from Mills College in Oakland and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from Simon Fraser University (in Burnaby, British Columbia) in 2016. She has been at Berkeley Lab in the Heavy Element Group since  2017.

Senior Scientific Engineering Associate

Dr. Joanna Szornel is a researcher in the Applied Nuclear Physics group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She received a B.A. in physics and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from UC Berkeley. Joanna works on multiple projects focused on developing radiation detectors and instrumentation for radiation detector systems.

Colette Flood is the Berkeley Lab Education Director for the Department of Energy Office of Science, Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) programs and the Manager of Workforce Development & Education (WD&E).  She stewards all of the programs for WD&E. She is the main point of contact for LBNL divisions, community partners, faculty interns, and mentors.

Nakeiah Harrell is the Internship Program Manager in the LBNL Workforce Development and Education Office.  She manages internship programs and supports undergraduate, post baccalaureate, graduate, and faculty STEM education programs. Nakeiah collaboratively works with the WD&E Manager to provide support and coordination in program development and new initiatives for WD&E.

Kelly Johnson is the Talent Outreach Program Manager in Human Resources and Recruiting at LBNL.  Kelly leads lab-wide diversity outreach efforts at some of the largest multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural STEM events in the U.S. to support the Lab’s human capital needs and broaden resources and avenues to attract diverse talent.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Marilena Lykiardopoulou is a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.  She received her B.Sc. in Physics at the University of Athens in Greece and her Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and Trapping Techniques at the University of British Columbia-TRIUMF. Her scientific interests focus on the limits of existence of exotic and superheavy nuclei and on the techniques required to determine them. She is currently part of the Heavy Element group at LBNL. 

Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Ann-Kathrin Schuetz is a postdoctoral scholar in the Neutrino Program at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. She obtained her B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Tübingen in Germany. Her research is primarily focused on developing models to interpret experimental data and elucidate physical processes in the study of Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay (0νββ), an incredibly rare decay. If detected, this decay is so rare that it happens a trillion times slower than the age of our universe. The remarkable rarity of neutrinoless double beta decay mandates the construction of large detectors, accompanied by the stringent requirement to suppress non-0νββ events — commonly referred to as background events — to levels approaching absolute minimal occurrence.