edited by Leah Hesla

Leah Hesla is a science writer at Argonne National Laboratory and former senior writer in the Fermilab Office of Communication.

Giaccone’s research focuses on particle accelerator cavities — the structures that transfer energy to particle beams as the beams race through them. She and her team use plasma to process the inner surface of the cavities in order to remove contaminations. This new technique results in a better-performing accelerator. Her work was recently recognized at the International Conference on RF Superconductivity.

A Ph.D. student at the Illinois Institute of Technology conducting his research at Fermilab, Bafia is currently researching a method to draw maximum performance from acceleration cavities. The method, called nitrogen doping, increases superconducting radio-frequency cavity efficiency and boosts beams to higher energies over shorter distances. His work earned him the Best Student Poster Prize at the 2019 International Particle Accelerator Conference.

In December 2018, four students received the prestigious Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research fellowships to conduct their research at Fermilab. The goal of the program is to prepare graduate students for STEM careers critically important to the Office of Science mission by providing graduate thesis research opportunities at DOE laboratories.