Happy National Intern Day! 🎉
When asked if we’d hire interns, I said “no way”
At the time we had been in our facility for a measly five months and had a tiny team of eight trying to crack a Grand Engineering Challenge. So, when a teammate suggested hiring an intern, my reaction was “there’s no way we have the time or energy for that nonsense.” 🤦♂️
Fortunately, serendipity had other plans. I grudgingly accepted trialing an incredible candidate and she was AWESOME (when you’re done with that Ph.D., let’s talk!). We’re now in our third season of interns who are tackling all kinds of challenges with us:
Designing and building ultra-compact high voltage feedthroughs, developing in-vacuum pepperpot beam diagnostics, advancing electrode voltage stability monitors and controls, overseeing test cell network standardization and upgrades, running plasma simulations and visualizations, conducting high voltage tests (hundreds of thousands of volts!... in an incredibly well-designed and safe test facility), and producing fusion components in our machine shop.
Our interns have significantly contributed to our successes, with three past interns now part of our permanent team. Here’s to our summer class of ’24 – thank you for your hard work and dedication! 👏
#NationalInternDay