Livermore's 2026 postdoctoral team of Sumita Ghosh, Emily de Jong, and Ajinkya Desai competed against their Bay Area colleagues at the sixth annual Bay Area Research SLAM (BARS), hosted by LLNL at Garre Event Center on Oct. 15, 2026. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and LLNL each sent three postdocs to compete, using three-minute talks and a single slide to present their research.
Individual awards and a trophy for the highest-scoring team among the four national labs were granted by a panel of esteemed judges, including Amanda Dodd, director for Computation and Analysis for National Security at SNL; Micah Lowenthal, acting associate deputy director for science & technology at LLNL; John Sarrao, laboratory director at SLAC; and Kathy Yelick, laboratory director at LBNL.
Eric Schwegler, director of LLNL's Academic Engagement Office, provided opening remarks, praising the 12 participants on their commitment to conveying their research to a broad audience. LLNL's Keegan Orr and SLAC's Sayed Saqline served as the event's emcees, keeping the energy high between presentations.
After the talks were over and judges deliberated, the 12 finalists voted for the Peer Award by choosing their favorite talk. The judging was exceptionally close, with a two-way tie for the Peer Award and less than a point separating LLNL and LBNL in the final point tally.
Third place and Peer Award: Hakyung Lee, LBNL: "The Picky Metal-Shopping Bacterium"
Second place and Peer Award: Emily de Jong, LLNL: "The Secret Vertical Life of Clouds"
First place: Jiayue Wang, SLAC: "Atomic Waffle Maker for Ultrathin Crystals"
Team trophy: LBNL
Several Livermore staff members came out to BARS to support their colleagues. "Even though I'm in the research lab community, I don't really know what's going on at Berkeley or SLAC or Sandia," explained Matt Redmond, mechanical engineer at LLNL. "It was really nice to learn about what the other labs are doing in a way that's easy to absorb."
Elizabeth Wheeler, head of the LDRD program at LLNL, sees multiple benefits to SLAM participation. "I think the value in being able to describe what you can do to a general population is priceless. Having early career scientists participate in the SLAM ecosystem also helps them build a network across the labs, and those connections can be beneficial throughout your entire career," said Wheeler.
Olivia Baumann, Ph.D. candidate in social psychology, appreciated BARS as an attendee working outside of the National Laboratory community. "It's a look into a different world, and it's fun to learn about these new innovations and exciting achievements. A good analogy or metaphor really keeps the talk understandable for non-experts. If a talk is framed around a good metaphor or analogy, it keeps you engaged and avoids all the jargon," noted Baumann.
Meg Rodriguez, director of the Career Pathways Office at LBNL, was proud of LBNL's performance and complimented all the participants on a job well done. "We're very excited and humbled to take home the team trophy. This was an amazing group of researchers who put in so much work on their talks and they did so well!" exclaimed Rodriguez. "I'm looking forward to more collaboration with our sister Bay Area National Labs, and I hope BARS inspires early career researchers who are on the fence about participating - you have nothing to lose! The SLAM offers an invaluable skill set that you can take anywhere in your career."
Faith Dukes, director of STEM education and workforce development programs at LBNL, echoed Rodriguez's sentiments. "All the participants were so wonderful, and the work that they've done to make their science accessible is just so great to see. Knowing that we have people that are both brilliant in their scientific work as well as scientific communication signals a bright future for the Department of Energy and the National Laboratory--they're going to get the work out to not only the folks who most need to hear it, but also the people they most need to inspire. Congratulations to the Berkeley Lab team for bringing the trophy back home!"
The event video is on the BARS website and available here.
