Applied Physics Junior/Senior Seminar Visits Brookhaven National Laboratory

On December 5, 2025, junior and senior Applied Physics majors enrolled in APPH 4903 — the AP junior/senior seminar — traveled to Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for an afternoon tour of the lab’s facilities. This year’s seminar, co-taught by Professors Elizabeth Paul and Aravind Devarakonda, emphasizes applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in applied physics, and the visit was organized to give students a firsthand look at how a major DOE national laboratory is incorporating AI/ML across its research programs. The group of roughly 35 students, accompanied by APAM faculty including Department Chair Marc Spiegelman, traveled to Upton, NY by chartered bus and were hosted by Kristyn Noren of BNL’s Protocol Office. Tour stops included a demonstration of autonomous experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a visit to the Brookhaven–Stony Brook quantum network node, and a tour of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN).

The trip continues a tradition established by last year’s seminar, which visited IBM’s Yorktown Heights research facility during a quantum-computing-themed iteration of the course taught by Prof. Mike Mauel. Visits like these complement classroom discussions by exposing students to the breadth of career paths and research environments available beyond Columbia — from national laboratories to industrial research centers — and to the increasingly central role that data-driven methods are playing across the applied physical sciences. Many thanks to Sharon Sputz of the Office of Research Initiatives and Development for facilitating the initial connection with BNL, and to Noel Blackburn and Kristyn Noren at Brookhaven for their hospitality in hosting the group.