Scintillator Library for Nuclear Applications
Bethany Goldblum, Professor
Nuclear Engineering
Applications for Spring 2025 are closed for this project.
Scintillators emit light when excited by ionizing radiation. They are used in a variety of applications including basic science measurements, medical imaging, nuclear security and proliferation detection technologies, fusion-energy system diagnostics, etc. A database of scintillator properties is hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (scintillator.lbl.gov) containing a variety of measured properties extracted from peer-reviewed literature and other characteristics of scintillating media. Our group maintains and expands this database to aid material users and developers.
Role: Responsibilities of this position may include maintenance and upgrade of the library website and online database; extraction and collation of data and experimental details from peer-reviewed manuscripts for upload in the database; and plotting of data for website visualizations. There may also be options for design and execution of machine learning models leveraging library data for material prospecting.
The student is required to attend and participate in the Bay Area Neutron Group's weekly research group meeting. There are opportunities for both remote and in-person work. (If you are eager to participate but don't have the required background, apply anyway! We have previously hosted Freshman who have gone on to coauthor peer-reviewed publications with us.)
Qualifications: Required:
Lower Division Physics (7 Series) and math through Math 54; Programming fundamentals
Desired skills (or what you'll learn): Upper division undergraduate standing; Familiarity with a Linux/Unix environment; Completion of NE101 Nuclear Reactions and Radiation (or equivalent)
Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Thibault Laplace, Staff Researcher
Hours: 9-11 hrs
Off-Campus Research Site: Remote or in-person options at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720
Related website: http://appliedphysics.nuc.berkeley.edu/
Related website: http://appliedphysics.nuc.berkeley.edu/