On April 17, 2025, a group of 10 students, accompanied by Emilie Hein, Rick Hough, and Tadashi Tsuchida, went on a tour of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA. Hillary Freeman led the tour, who has also visited Skyline College multiple times to discuss internship opportunities for community college students at SLAC.
The tour started with a short introductory video in the Science and User Support Building, followed by a visit to the Stanford-SLAC CryoEM Center (S2C2), where Dr. Patrick Mitchell demonstrated how its state-of-the-art equipment allows the creation of high-resolution 3D images of biological samples. This technology was used to image coronavirus spike proteins while they were still attached to the virus, enabling the development of vaccines.
The group then headed to the Klystron Gallery to check out the two-mile-long hallway of Klystrons that sits atop the linear accelerator. The tour ended with a visit of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Experimental Halls.
Libni Murillo Martinez’s takeaway from the experience was that it made her realize “how scientists are constantly working on trying to solve real-world problems through advanced research and technology”. While Jianxuan Qiao found that “operating a big project needs people that have different backgrounds to collaborate, whether it is engineers, scientists, ITs and others. Team work is important.” The students highly recommend this tour to others, with Gabriel Angelo Lugtu sharing “if you are a STEM student this would be a great learning experience. And it’s not everyday you can take a selfie of a particle accelerator.”
Tadashi Tsuchida thought “the tour was well conducted and thoroughly fascinating.” He added that “our students left feeling fired up about the STEM careers they are pursuing.”
This field trip was organized by the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement (MESA) and IMMERSE in STEM programs at Skyline College.
For more information about MESA, please contact Emilie Hein, heine@smccd.edu or Denise Hum, humd@smccd.edu, MESA co-directors, or Stephanie Wells, wellss@smccd.edu, MESA Program Services Coordinator.
To learn more about IMMERSE, please contact Emilie Hein, heine@smccd.edu or Rick Hough, hough@smccd.edu PI and Co-PI for IMMERSE in STEM.
This work is supported by NSF S-STEM grant award #2221696.
Photos credit: Tadashi Tsuchida
Article by: Emilie Hein, Rick Hough, Tadashi Tsuchida, Gabriel Angelo Lugtu, Libni Murillo Martinez, Jianxuan Qiao
