President Goldsmith Celebrates BNL Internship, Summer Program Graduates

Addressing young researchers with whom she shares a strong connection, Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith delivered the congratulatory keynote at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) annual Summer Internship Closing Ceremony.

The August 7 event at BNL’s Berkner Hall was hosted by BNL’s Office of Workforce Development and Science Education, and celebrated more than 250 interns from across the country. It included a symposium and poster sessions where interns explained the research projects they did at Brookhaven Lab this summer.

Goldsmith — co-chair of Brookhaven Science Associates, which manages BNL for the U.S. Department of Energy — recalled when she was first exposed to research at Bell Labs, sharing the exhilaration and satisfaction she felt researching and solving problems alongside brilliant people.

“I feel incredibly lucky to have chosen a profession that is so gratifying, and it all started for me as a summer intern at a prominent research lab,” Goldsmith said. “We are so lucky to have places like Brookhaven National Lab that not only advances discovery but also inspires the next generation of STEM researchers through internships programs like the one you have all experienced.”

Goldsmith, an accomplished electrical engineer, innovator and entrepreneur, said her journey to a STEM career “wasn’t exactly smooth,” beginning with junior college classes and a summer trip to Europe for a French program that saw her working as a bouzouki singer in Greece despite never having sung or knowing a word of Greek. “That experience — of doing something risky, exciting and completely new, fueled the beginning of my entrepreneurial spirit that I still carry with me to this day.”

Goldsmith later attended UC Berkeley to major in engineering, working as a waitress to help pay for school. One of the only women in the program, Goldsmith said many around her didn’t think women could succeed at STEM, but she tuned out the voices of those who didn’t believe in her potential as an engineer.

She said her first “guidepost moment” was meeting her algebra professor, William Arveson, and his teaching assistant, Elizabeth Strauss, the first female graduate student in STEM that she had seen in a year at Berkeley. Goldsmith said she fell in love with algebra and abstract math, and found a mentor and role model in a woman who was an advanced STEM student and soon-to-be professional.

“This is the power of mentorship,” Goldsmith said. “And it’s also why I believe that world-class public institutions — laboratories like Brookhaven National Lab and universities like Stony Brook University and all those in the SUNY system — are so essential to the future of scientific knowledge. They help create space for any and all motivated young scholars — regardless of gender or background — to see what’s possible. In fact, to see themselves in the future of STEM.”

Goldsmith concluded with this advice to the gathered graduates: Keep learning, and always do what you love.

“Soak up all the knowledge and experience you can,” she said. “Foster unique experiences and cherish those people — those mentors and guides — who show you new ways of thinking and being. They are more important than you can imagine.”

BNL hosts multiple summer education programs, including those from the Department of Energy (DOE) Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists program that helps ensure a sustained pipeline for the nation’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics workforce.