Summer intern studies physics for self, family
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| Summer intern Sheri Lopez, here with son Dominic, pursues her love of physics as a student at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos. She spent this summer at Fermilab as a summer intern. Photo courtesy of Sheri Lopez |
Dominic is two. He is obsessed with "Despicable Me" and choo-choos. His mom Sheri Lopez is 29, obsessed with physics, and always wanted to be an astronaut.
But while Dominic's future is full of possibilities, his mom's options are narrower. Lopez is a single mother and a sophomore at the University of New Mexico-Los Alamos, where she is double majoring in physics and mechanical engineering. Her future is focused on providing for her son, and that plan recently included 10 weeks spent at Fermilab for a Summer Undergraduate Laboratories Internship (SULI).
"Being at Fermilab was beautiful, and it really made me realize how much I love physics," Lopez said. "On the other end of the spectrum, it made me realize that I have to think of my future in a tangible way."
Instead of being an astronaut, now she plans on building the next generation of particle detectors. Lopez is reaching that goal by coupling her love of physics with practical trade skills such as coding, which she picked up at Fermilab as part of her research developing new ways to visualize data for the MINERvA neutrino experiment.
"The main goal of it was to try to make the data that the MINERvA project was getting a lot easier to read and more presentable for a web-based format," Lopez said. Interactive, user-friendly data may be one way to generate interest in particle physics from a more diverse audience. Lopez had no previous coding experience but quickly realized at Fermilab that it would allow her to make a bigger difference in the field.
Dominic, meanwhile, spent the summer with his grandparents in New Mexico. That was hard, Lopez said, but she received a lot of support from Internship Program Administrator Tanja Waltrip.
"I was determined to not let her miss this opportunity, which she worked so hard to acquire," Waltrip said. Waltrip coordinates support services for interns like Lopez in 11 different programs hosted by Fermilab.
Less than 10 percent of applicants were accepted into Fermilab's summer program. SULI is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, so many national labs host these internships, and applicants choose which labs to apply to.
"There was never a moment when anyone doubted or said I couldn't do it," Lopez said.
Dominic doesn't understand why his mom was gone this summer, but he made sure to give her the longest hug of her life when she came back. For her part, Lopez was happy to bring back a brighter future for her son.
—Troy Rummler
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