Partnering with our neighbors through science education and charitable giving
As a valued and involved member of neighboring communities, the Laboratory continually strives to promote science education in the Tri-Valley, the Bay Area, and the Central Valley. Summer brings to Livermore many students and teachers for workshops and interns to develop skills guided by Laboratory mentors. This year LLNL staff and LLNS donated more than $4 million to local nonprofits, while hundreds of employees donated their time to local service agencies.
Summer Schooling at LLNL
STEM activities brought many visitors to the Laboratory during the summer months. The long-running Teacher Research Academy welcomed educators for sessions on AI for the Classroom, Drone Design & Application, Data Analytics, and Energy Technology. Science education for high school students included three programs. STEM with Phones was a week-long workshop to study the basic principles of physics and engineering through hands-on use of the sensing and computing capabilities in their cellphones. In the three-day Manufacturing Workshop, students developed practical skills in design and fabrication through hands-on activities, and they learned about LLNL’s Machinist Apprenticeship Program as a unique career opportunity. The two-week-long Biotech Summer Experience provided students an immersive introduction to molecular biology and bioinformatics research together with ample laboratory experience. Livermore also hosted its fourth annual Science Accelerating Girls’ Engagement (SAGE) camp. The camp, which hosted 30 Northern California public high school students from all backgrounds, was a residential experience offering a week packed with LLNL tours, career talks, job shadowing, professional growth workshops, and hands-on projects.
The Laboratory also welcomes hundreds of interns—undergraduate summer interns and graduate students. As early career professionals in training, they collaborate with their mentors and participate in projects that develop their skills with expert guidance and support along the way. Interests and projects varied widely, with opportunities offered by most program areas at the Laboratory. Examples include the Cybersecurity Summer Institute, the Data Science Summer Institute’s Data Science Challenge, and the Computational Chemistry and Materials Science Summer Institute.
Welcome to the Laboratory
The Laboratory’s Discovery Center is open to visitors on weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. The center includes hands-on exhibits related to LLNL’s research programs, institutional history, and role in the community. Local elementary schools are invited to arrange a visit for their fifth -grade students to enjoy an interactive Fun with Science performance. This year, nearly 2,000 local fifth graders participated. The Laboratory also offered high school teachers an “Onsite Day at the Lab Tour” opportunity for their classes. These tours included a visit to the Discovery Center, the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory, the National Ignition Facility, and a career panel lunch with working scientists and engineers.
LLNL also hosts “STEM Day at the Lab” twice a year, a daylong interactive event focused on STEM activities for for fifth- through -eighth graders. The event in October 2024 brought more than 240 students and chaperones from Bay Area schools to engage in hands-on demonstrations, workshops, and tours. About 200 students from California’s Central Valley attended a second STEM Day at the Lab in April. “Dream Day” brought 25 6th- through 8th-graders from Tracy, California, schools to engage in science and engineering activities and learn about cutting-edge research at LLNL.
STEM on the Road
For more than three decades, Laboratory researchers have traveled to University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, for the STEM San Joaquin Conference. The event in FY 2025 attracted more than
300 middle-school students in October 2024. Three sessions of workshops provided the students hands-on science or math-related activities ranging from programming robots to solving cybercrimes. Las Positas College hosted Science on Saturday in February, and the series travelled to Tracy, California, in March. Attracting more than 2,000 middle- and high-school students, the presentations in FY2025 focused on autonomous sensors, adaptive optics, and x-ray telescopes. Las Positas College also hosted the annual Science and Engineering Seminar series, jointly sponsored by the college and LLNL. The lecture series provides a forum for Laboratory scientists and engineers to share groundbreaking research with the college’s scientific community of students, staff, and faculty. Topics included nuclear threat reduction, microbiology and human health, fusion energy prospects, and science education with smartphones.
Broadcasting Big Ideas
Less than a year after its debut, LLNL’s Big Ideas Lab podcast has reached a major milestone: one million downloads. Launched in September 2024, the series quickly gained momentum, resonating with listeners eager to engagewith discussions around nationalsecurity, emerging technologies, and breakthrough science. Episodes have explored topics ranging from the history of nuclear deterrence and quantum computing to drug discovery, AI, and fusion energy. Framed around interviews with the people at LLNL making the impossible possible, the bi-weekly Big Ideas Lab has drawn a growing global audience, frequently ranking among the top 200 podcasts globally across major platforms, and with tens of thousands of listeners tuning in regularly. Episodes offer a behind-the-scenes look at some of LLNL’s most advanced projects.
Charitable Gift Giving
In 2025, LLNL employees and LLNS once again demonstrated their commitment to support local communities and nonprofit organizations. LLNL and LLNS established gift giving options at times outside the window of the annual Helping Others More Effectively (HOME) campaign. In response to the disaster, LLNL employees (with matching LLNS funds) donated more than $82,000 to charities providing relief after the fires in Southern California. A similar drive in August raised near $15,000 to assist flood victims in central Texas. In addition, an Open Match Giving Campaign, which ran from mid-May through August, gathered more than $276,000 for local charities. The November 2025 HOME campaign raised $3.75 million for charitable organizations selected by employees. LLNS will supplement the $1 million HOME matching funds with up to $300,000 to match year-round donations in FY 2026. In January 2026, LLNS announced the recipients of the 2025 Community Gift Program, with funds totaling $220,000. Many of the awards serve children in the Tri-Valley as welll as Contra Costa, San Francisco, and San Joaquin counties, and focus on literacy, STEM education, and cultural arts. Other recipients focus their charitable efforts toward individuals and families in need of assistance.
