Wright Lab undergraduates chosen for Summer 2025 DOE Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships

Three Wright Lab-affiliated undergraduates were selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science for Summer 2025 Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI).  SULI provides hands on research and technical training at national laboratories.

Diya Naik ‘27 has worked with the Karsten Heeger Group on CUORE and CUPID, and now does research on quantum error correcting codes with assistant professor Aleksander Kubica in the applied physics department. This summer, Naik was a SULI intern at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), conducting research on improving the performance of quantum error correcting codes under the mentorship of Dr. Ravi Naik and Larry Chen.

Naik explained, “Quantum computers are extremely interconnected sensitive systems, making them adept at solving problems that classical computers struggle with. However, the sensitivity is a double-edged sword, because it also makes quantum computers sensitive to noise from itself and its environment.” 

Naik continued, “Lots of quantum computing research is focused on improving quantum error correction. Using mathematical tools, we can check if an error has occurred and figure out what sort of operations to apply to correct that error.” 

Naik said, “My research was about using one type of error to our advantage–erasure error. Compared to some other more difficult errors, erasures are easier to detect in hardware. Yale researchers, including Kubica, have already shown that incorporating erasures into error correction improves the performance of quantum computers. At LBNL, I investigated how much improvement erasure checking could provide at the specific error parameters the labs’ systems were under, even if the fraction of erasure error or individual qubit error was at the worst case for the hardware. I tested the quantum error correction’s performance through Stim, which is a quantum circuit simulation package through Google Quantum AI.”

Naik added, “I am really interested in the boundary between theory and experimental work, so it was exciting to be able to better understand the behavior of superconducting qubits in the lab to inform my computational research. Summer internships are an excellent opportunity to fortify your understanding of your field of interest, and I definitely feel like I know much more coming out than I did going in. My mentors did a great job fielding my questions, checking in on my progress, and honing my research abilities.”

Vasilisa Malenkiy ‘27, an undergraduate physics student in the David Moore lab working on the SIMPLE experiment, is spending her summer at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University and the DOE. At SLAC, she is conducting nuclear physics research developing instrumentation for the Beryllium Electron capture in Superconducting Tunnel junctions (BeEST) experiment—an effort to search for sterile neutrinos and physics beyond the Standard Model—with the Neutrino (nEXO) and Dark Matter Quantum Information Science (DMQIS) groups, under the mentorship of Brian Lenardo. 

Malenkiy explained, “The BeEST experiment searches for sterile neutrinos (𝜈_s) —hypothetical particles that interact only via gravity, are compelling dark matter candidates, and could explain other beyond-the-Standard-Model phenomena—by precisely measuring the recoil energy of lithium nuclei in ⁷Be → ⁷Li electron capture decays.”

Malenkiy continued, “If a heavy 𝜈ₛ is emitted, energy conservation causes a small drop in recoil energy—a signature that BeEST’s high-resolution superconducting tunnel junction detectors are tailored to detect. To isolate this energy shift, BeEST uses a γ-ray “tag” from a special subset of decays: about 10% of ⁷Be decays leave ⁷Li in a short-lived excited state, which emits a 478 keV γ-ray as it relaxes. Detecting this γ-ray yields a cleaner recoil sample and sharper energy resolution, enhancing BeEST’s sensitivity to the tiny energy spectrum shifts expected from 𝜈ₛ emission.”

Malenkiy said, “This summer, I commissioned and characterized a new sodium iodide (NaI) scintillator array for γ-tagging in BeEST. I built the readout electronics, calibrated the detectors, gain-matched their responses, and measured accidental coincidence rates around 478 keV to better understand the γ-ray background. The array will be deployed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to sharpen recoil measurements and boost BeEST’s sensitivity to sterile neutrinos.”

“I also installed and tested a data acquisition system (DAQ) for a new class of High-Voltage electron-Volt (HVeV) detectors—ultracold silicon devices that measure nuclear recoils through crystal vibrations rather than superconducting currents. I completed end-to-end DAQ testing and integrated the system into a dilution refrigerator at SLAC, preparing BeEST for its next generation of precision recoil measurements.”

Malenkiy added, “I loved researching as part of a collaborative experimental team at SLAC this summer. Every day brought something new and entertaining—from building and characterizing detectors in the lab, to working with ultracold dilution refrigerators in the cleanroom, to collaborating with mentors, graduate students, interns, and visiting researchers. Above all, working alongside others equally passionate about physics made the experience highly energizing and deeply rewarding. This summer has cemented my commitment to pursuing a research career at the intersection of nuclear, particle, and quantum physics, and I’m excited to carry the fire it ignited back to Yale and beyond.”

Ingrid Slattery ‘27, an undergraduate in applied physics who previously worked in the Jack Harris Lab, worked with Teresa Le at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on refining a reliable and cost-efficient method for scaling up the processing of solar panels that are designed for satellites. 

According to Slattery, the number of Earth-orbiting satellites is expected to increase and, for the U.S. to maintain its strong representation in space, their satellite production must also increase.  

Slattery explained that typical rooftop solar panels cannot withstand the harsh conditions of space, but panels made from elements in groups III and V of the periodic table are resistant to a satellite’s tough environment. But these specialized panels are very costly, so NREL aims to reduce the cost of III-V solar panels and bring the technology into terrestrial markets by boosting production volume.

Slattery said “To streamline III-V solar panel production, I focused on processing, which accounts for about one-third of III-V panel costs. In a crucial step of processing, tiny metal circuits are stamped onto a light-absorbing crystal to extract its energy. I upgraded NREL’s processing capabilities to suit larger crystal wafer sizes. In the clean room, I developed a stencil for the metal circuits on dummy crystal wafers using a technique called photolithography. Once I’d made a stencil, I would take the wafer out of the clean room and spend hours studying it under a microscope.” 

Slattery added, “I got to meet dozens of NREL scientists and learn about their work in solar, recycling, and battery technology. I enjoyed the lab’s collaborative research style, and I’m excited to explore the variety of energy science careers I learned about this summer!”