Office of Research UC Davis & LLNL Announce Graduate Mentorship Award Program Recipients - Office of Research

UC Davis & LLNL Announce Graduate Mentorship Award Program Recipients

Since 1963, the University of California, Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have conducted joint interdisciplinary research that leverage the strengths of both institutions to address a variety of critical societal problems. Over the last year, leaders from LLNL and UC Davis have been working together to develop mechanisms that reinvigorate and deepen the partnerships between the institutions. Several joint faculty and lab researcher workshops have taken place over the last few months to identify and develop new topical areas of common interests. A number of joint grant proposals to federal funding agencies have been submitted and work is ongoing to identify funding mechanisms that facilitate additional collaborations.

As a component of this initiative, a Joint UCD-LLNL Graduate Mentorship Award program has been established. This program was created to provide a unique opportunity for graduate students to experience the complimentary research environment of both a leading university and a national laboratory during their PhD studies. The Mentorship Awards provide funding for up to three years of financial support for the graduate student. Graduate students will engage in research activities at both Livermore and Davis campuses under the joint supervision of the UC Davis faculty mentor and the LLNL staff scientist or engineer.

A Call for Proposals was issued through the UC Davis Office of Research, eliciting 25 submissions. Proposals were reviewed by independent peer review, following a process coordinated by LLNL and UC Davis. The quality of proposals was viewed as being uniformly high, with the following projects selected to receive funding in this first round;

Efficient Simulations for a Large-Scale Model of Cardiac Rhythms

UC Davis Co-Principal Investigator: Timothy Lewis, Professor of Mathematics
LLNL Co-Principal Investigator: David Richards

Engineered Nanostructure for Regulation of Cellular Signaling Cascades

UC Davis Co-Principal Investigator: Gang-yu Liu, Professor of Chemistry
LLNL Co-Principal Investigator: Ted Laurence

Ultralow Density Metal Foams for High Energy Density and Advanced Materials Research

UC Davis Co-Principal Investigator: Kai Liu, Professor of Physics
LLNL Co-Principal Investigator: Jeff Colvin

Rare Event Detection: Neutrinos and Dark Matter

UC Davis Co-Principal Investigator: Robert Svoboda, Professor of Physics
LLNL Co-Principal Investigator: Adam Bernstein

Funding for this program was provided by the University Relations and Science Education Group, LLNL, the UC Office of the President Laboratory Management Office, and UC Davis Office of Research.