Every year, faculty members from institutions serving many undergraduate students, including all historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), have an opportunity to participate in hands-on research at a U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory. The DOE Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Students Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) is designed for full-time faculty to collaborate on a research project at one of 15 DOE national laboratories for enhancing research capacity and innovating STEM teaching and learning at faculty members’ home institutions. As one of the participating labs, Ames National Laboratory has hosted 65 faculty since the program started in 2005.
Faculty interested in applying for the VFP must find a research collaboration prior to application. Once they have a national lab researcher with whom to collaborate, they can apply for the program. There are two tracks available to applicants, research collaboration and the teaching initiative track (available to returning VFP participants).
“Hosting a visiting scientist in your lab is an excellent way to enhance your research, introduce fresh perspectives, and foster collaboration with new research groups,” said Kelly Bergman, the education and outreach program manager at Ames Lab. “The program also offers scientists a valuable opportunity to expand their professional networks while significantly boosting research productivity.”
Chamila DeSilva, Ph. D., an assistant professor of chemistry at Springfield College, was accepted to the program in 2024. Most of her research background is in computational work, so she applied to gain some hands-on research experience.
“I really wanted to do something with the real world,” DeSilva said, “Something that matters.”
DeSilva collaborated on a research project focused on enzyme breakdown of polyester waste. Aside from gaining some hands-on research experience, her time at Ames Lab also helped her to fulfill the part of her job that requires work outside of the college.
Another faculty hosted by Ames Lab is Bharat Bhattarai, Ph. D., an associate professor of chemistry at Flagler College. He participated in the VFP for two years, 2024 and 2025. During that time, he was teaching at a different institution.
“I was an assistant professor,” Bhattarai explained, “The VFP experience was recognized very positively which helped me to get tenured and promoted to associate professor. And when I was applying for a new position, this research experience made a big positive impact on my resume.”
Bhattarai has a background in synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry, and during his time at the lab he collaborated on novel catalyst development research. The first year he brought two of his students along to Ames Lab. When applying to participate in the VFP, faculty have the option of inviting up to two of their students to join the project.
“The first time when I came, I brought two of my students. They had zero research background,” said Bhattarai. “They were excited, they were very curious. In addition to the cutting edge research, they received several trainings about resume building, networking, preparing and presenting in scientific meeting etc. They learned a lot of things during that short period of time, and that experience actually helped tremendously for their future career.”
He emphasized what a great experience it was to bring his students because of the benefit and opportunity for them, as well as for himself. Prior to his participation in the VFP, he did not have experience mentoring students. Bringing his student along provided him with the mentorship experience and skills that has been beneficial to his teaching methods.
Bhattarai was especially impressed by the support he received throughout the application process, as well as the training, guidance and mentorship he received during the program.
“The program provides several of the training sessions and meetings, and it helps us to develop research proposal and grants applications for external fundings,” he said. “The research facilities and the training they provide there was impressive.”
Both participants shared the wonderful experience they had working with the Education & Outreach staff at Ames Lab and their scientist collaborators.
“The thing about Ames Lab is there are such amazing scientists there, and they are doing really top-notch work,” said DeSilva. “It’s a really nice place with really good people.”
Ames National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Laboratory operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies, and energy solutions. We use our expertise, unique capabilities, and interdisciplinary collaborations to solve global problems.
Ames Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.