Experiences influence BHSU student's education choices

Editor’s Note: Kimberly Talcott of BHSU contributed to this article.

Madison Jilek's association with world-leading science began more than three years ago when she was a Davis-Bahcall scholar at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. She spent time working underground then traveled to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Madison-Wisconsin and, finally, Italy, where she visited two national laboratories.

“Through touring labs in the United States and Italy, I gained a strong appreciation for how research is applied in a variety of environments and locations,” said Jilek, a senior at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D.

Since then, Jilek has worked in the BHSU laser spectroscopy and organic chemistry labs and with Dr. Brianna Mount, assistant professor at BHSU, at the Underground Campus. And this summer, the physical science and chemistry major put all that experience to work as an intern at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York.

“I’ve been involved in a lot of different research at BHSU and Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead,” Jilek said. “It was great to be in this new environment to see how my training had prepared me. I was able to go in and hit the ground running.”

Jilek applied to the national Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships Program (SULI) last December, she ranked the top three host labs at which she wanted to work—Brookhaven was her first choice. Jilek received a stipend, travel allowance and housing, then headed to New York.

Her research there focused on understanding the mechanics behind charge recombination—or how solar energy devices could be made more efficient. She worked on organic photovoltaics (OPVs)—plastic-based solar energy cells. Theoretically, OPVs could be good sources for solar energy bec.ause they can be very thin.

Jilek worked under the direction of Dr. Matthew Bird in Brookhaven’s Laser Electron Accelerator Facility (LEAF). Her team prepared samples and she wrote a computer program to mimic production and consumption of the species they would be testing, using differential equations.

On the weekends, she took in the sights of New York City, saw the hit musical “Hamilton” and went skydiving.

This semester, she’s back at BHSU where she continues to work on her capstone project for the University Honors Program. Her project is based on her work in the laser spectroscopy lab.

Her experiences over the past four years inspired Jilek to continue her education and this fall she is applying to Ph.D. programs around the country.

"As a Davis-Bahcall Scholar At Sanford Lab, I was just preparing for college and it was a motivating experience," she said. "At Brookhaven, I loved the work so much that I’m hoping to find a program that uses similar techniques to study renewable energy for my PhD research." 

But, it was her years at BHSU that really influenced her desire to continue in this field, she said.

“BHSU provided me with ample opportunities to grow into a well-rounded student and researcher. The faculty here have taken a real interest in my ambitions, investing their time in me as they do many of their students,” she said.