C-GEM talked to Emily Hoff, PhD, and Hannah Dedmon, PhD, about their experiences at national labs. Dr. Hoff is a Staff Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Dr. Dedmon is a postdoctoral researcher in Computational Materials Sciences at Sandia National Laboratories.
Key Takeaways:
- Mission-oriented. Each national lab has a stated mission to further the national interest, so when proposing, performing, and reporting your research, your work must be relevant to the overall mission of the lab. Both our panelists highlighted that working at a national lab involves a little more “red tape” than academia and industry, but it gives them access to impressive resources to do great science.
- Incentives and progress. In academia, measures of progress revolve around publishing and presentations; however, at national labs, the science instead follows a quarterly reporting schedule with funding agencies, and—similar to industry—scientists focus on publishing internally and among other national labs. That being said, both Dr. Hoff and Dedmon emphasized that external publishing opportunities are available if you seek them out.
- Growth and professional development. Working at a national lab offers a lot of variety for career and skill development. As a staff scientist, you might start as a member of a project team, but as you grow, you can propose your own projects and be the PI of your own team. There are also many opportunities for mentorship, both as mentor and mentee. The plethora of highly skilled scientists allows for many opportunities for connection and networking, including in the academic space, with some national lab scientists serving on committees for graduate students at nearby universities.
- Finding the right position. It can be difficult to know what kind of project you would be working on just from a job posting. Our panelists recommend taking the chance and applying to any job you think you are qualified for; you can find out more about the project directly from the hiring team. They also emphasize that you will have the opportunity to move to other projects once you are in your role, so don’t limit yourself in the initial application process.
Thank you to Drs. Hoff and Dedmon for taking the time to chat about their experiences!