Lauren Bonetti
Lauren Bonetti is from Green Bay, Wisconsin, but spent most of her summers in Iron River, Michigan in the upper peninsula at her family’s lake house; that is, until she came to the Lab this summer as a nuclear and chemical sciences undergraduate intern within the Global Security Directorate.
Bonetti is a rising undergraduate junior at Marquette University in Milwaukee, and in the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) at Marquette University Detachment 930. She is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering with a minor in electrical engineering, after which she plans to go straight to grad school to get her master’s in electrical engineering.
“After graduation, I hope to commission into the Air Force or Space Force as a developmental engineer and work with satellite defense or space exploration,” she said.
During her LLNL internship, she was mentored by a nuclear physicist working to make developments in nuclear threat detection. “It is really amazing and exciting to be able to make a contribution, even though it might be a small one to a big research project.”
Bonetti has a lot of interests she pursues in her spare time, but mostly she loves to cook and bake. “My favorite baking obsession at the moment is baking chocolate chip banana bread,” Bonetti said. “I also love to go running, try new restaurants, do morning yoga, go to the beach and watch Netflix. Additionally, my new favorite hobby is thrifting retro kitchen supplies and vintage decor.”
Robert Cerda
Robert Cerda, originally from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, came to the Lab through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (ROTC)/Military Academic Research Associates (MARA) internship program. He is a UC Berkeley undergrad and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
It was his interest in 3D printing and photogrammetry and the opportunity to participate in the ROTC/MARA internship program that led him to his first-time internship at the Lab, where he worked in Materials Engineering and contributed to developing the world’s largest DIW dataset.
The future is bright for Cerda, who hopes to attend grad school, join the Space Force and hopefully work another summer at LLNL.
Cerda’s passions are surfing, skydiving and dispersed camping (camping anywhere outside of a designated campground with little to no services). “I like to surf (my surfboard says Robert’s on it because the shaper and I share a first name),” he said. “I also like dispersed camping, which is way better than regular camping.”
Juan Hernandez
Juan Hernandez was born and raised in Mexico City. As a first-generation immigrant and student, he came to the Bay Area in 2000. He lived in San Mateo for 15 years before moving to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly, where he is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Hernandez is a member of the United States Air Force reserves and has a deep desire to help in the mission of keeping our country safe from threats.
Hernandez dreamed of working at LLNL ever since he learned about it through the 2014 Johnny Depp movie, “Transcendence.” This summer his dream came true, and he was hired as an intern in the Computational Engineering Division, where he worked on developing an interface to synchronously control various devices to run tests with the goal of characterizing RF transceivers with high precision.
“What I love the most about the Lab is the people that work here,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez is very goal-oriented. After graduation from Cal Poly, he will be going on deployment to Qatar for six months and will then apply for a master’s program in electrical engineering with a focus on signal processing and digital communications. He also hopes to get his pilot’s license and wants to commission as a USAF officer. “I am going to try and become a reserve pilot and would like to work on as many humanitarian missions as possible,” Hernandez said. “I also want to come back and have a career at LLNL.”
In his spare time, Hernandez likes to explore national parks, camp, bike, run, play soccer, spend time with family and his puppy, Kingston. “I also recently got into climbing thanks to other interns at the Lab,” he said.
Isabella Martinez
Isabella Martinez grew up close to LLNL in the East Bay, where she was born and raised in Concord, California. She is currently in her second year at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she is majoring in chemical engineering and plans to specialize in materials.
“Through the connections I made at UCSD, I was introduced to the Lab,” Martinez said.
Martinez spent her summer with LLNL working in high energy density science within the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, her first internship/lab experience ever, where she worked on designing a one-dimensional model of the negative hydrogen ion to better understand multi-atomic effects in dense plasmas.
Martinez said the best thing about interning at the Lab are the connections she is making. “Scientists, staff and other interns have been welcoming and open to questions,” Martinez said. “The workplace environment emphasizes personal well-being, success and teamwork. These are qualities all workplaces should strive for.”
Alexandra Overland
Originally adopted from China, Alexandra Overland grew up in Bend, Oregon. She came to intern at LLNL through her graduate program at the University of Oregon, Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program. Overland received bachelors degrees in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Oregon and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in chemistry with an emphasis in polymer science.
Overland spent her summer working as a graduate intern in the Physical & Life Sciences Directorate, Materials Science Division, where she worked on a carbon capture project to upgrade biogas to biomethane and increase the energy density of the gas. “This was my first summer at the Lab and the internship contributes toward my graduate studies,” she said.
Overland said that what she enjoyed most about her internship was being surrounded by high-level science and hearing about all the different projects going on at the Lab. After she completes her master’s degree, she plans to work for a couple of years and then potentially pursue a Ph.D. or another master’s degree in chemical engineering.
Outside of work and school, Overland keeps herself busy. “I’m super active and absolutely love the outdoors,” she said. “I play tennis with the LLESA group every week and I try to go hiking every weekend.”
Christin Salley
Christin Salley grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. She is a GEM fellow and learned about the Lab while attending the 48th Annual Convention of the National Society of Black Engineers. “At the convention, I was able to have great conversations about my research and the work being done at LLNL,” Salley said. “I was already a GEM fellow, which provides the opportunity to be matched with an employer for a summer internship. After this networking moment, I was matched with LLNL.”
Salley has a bachelor’s degree in fire protection engineering from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree in civil engineering from Johns Hopkins University and is now working on her Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. “After graduation, I plan to be a professor and also work on research projects such as the ones here at LLNL,” Salley said.
Salley came on board as a Cybersecurity Summer Institute graduate student intern under the Global Security Directorate. Her role included assessing cyber-attack scenarios from the reconnaissance phase through attack execution. Salley said that the best part of interning at LLNL is the environment. “In addition to the environment, the people of LLNL are also great,” she said.
Salley said that in what little spare time she has, she loves traveling, trying new restaurants and baking desserts.
