Department of Energy 2003 Outstanding Mentors

Darryl Dickerhoff
Environmental Energy and Technologies Division

Dickerhoff, left, and student Prabu Segaran

Darryl Dickerhoff has been mentoring students in DOE programs for about three years. His impact on students persists past their stay at the Lab. A student from more than a year ago took the time to nominate him "because he really did go above and beyond what was required of him." Arriving at the Lab and finding that the project originally planned for him had changed to "something quite different" a student notes that "Darryl was more than helpful with finding all the information I needed" and notes that later that summer "he worked with me late into the night before the presentation was due. But what I really appreciated," notes Darryl's student, "was how he treated me as a friend and what he did for me outside of the lab. He invited my mother (who was visiting...) and I to join his family for a trip to Yosemite. That was an amazing opportunity for us."

Steve Gourlay
Accelerator and Fusion Research Division

Steve Gourlay, right, and student Michael Moore

Steve Gourlay and members of his group have been mentoring DOE program students for a few years. This year's nomination was originated by a community college student who tells us "I got everything I needed to do my project and to learn the complicated physics involved. The project he gave me could not have been a better one for the position I was in. It was simple enough for me to get a full understanding of the physics and cool enough to have impressed everyone who has seen it." More importantly, Steve gives his students confidence. One student tells us: "For the first time in my life, I felt safe calling myself a physicist, and his encouragement has cemented my goal of finishing school and given me the faith in myself that I was lacking before I got here."

Deborah Hopkins
Engineering Division

Deborah Hopkins, right, and student John Glover

Deborah Hopkins has mentored individual students as well as a FaST team for two years. She is a thoughtful supporter of DOE programs and their goals. She works with students from a variety of backgrounds and always takes the time and care to be sure that her students learn as much as possible no matter where they start from academically. It is not uncommon to see her group working with students from high schools, community colleges, four-year, and graduate institutions all at the same time. It is not uncommon for mentors to take justifiable pride in their students' accomplishments; Deb Hopkins also takes great joy in their successes.

Gerry McDermott
Physical Biosciences Division

Gerry McDermott, left, and student Elizabeth Levian

Gerry McDermott has been both recorded and unofficial mentor of DOE students for about three years. He remains in touch with and committed to his students; he hired his ERULF student from 2002 as a student assistant in 2003. His students tell us that he "has found the ideal combination of providing research guidance and expertise and still allowing for independence and creative thinking." His care and concern for his students goes beyond the time they are at the Laboratory. As one student put it, the "advice he's provided for me as an [intern] and as a young person poised to begin a career has been invaluable. Rarely have I found someone I could so readily look to for such important answers." " He makes work rewarding to an extent I did not was possible. It will be hard for me to find such mentors in my future; I doubt few can or will ever live up to Gerry's standards."

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