DeKalb, IL – Spencer Kelham, an NIU physics graduate student, has received a prestigious graduate student research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science.
Spencer Kelham
The highly competitive award is given to students who have the potential to make important contributions to the mission of the DOE Office of Science.
A 31-year-old native of Waterloo, Indiana, Kelham is one of 60 students from across the United States to receive the 2023 award. Each student is focused on projects addressing critical energy, environmental and nuclear challenges at the national and international levels.
The award stipend covers travel expenses and $3,600 per month in general living expenses for a one-year period starting in January. At that time, Kelham will begin work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Lemont on a full-time basis. He will be supervised by NIU Physics Professor Philippe Piot, who holds a joint appointment with the university and ANL.
At Argonne, Kelham will use electro-optic-based diagnostic tools to analyze particle beams. The goal of this work is to develop a working system for measuring and recording electron bunch shape, as well as arrival time. These quantities are important for characterizing and optimizing the electron bunch in accelerator applications.
“Over the next year, thanks to the support from the Department of Energy, the diagnostics that Spencer will develop is expected to be critical to understanding the intricate dynamics of charged-particle beams in large light-source storage rings but also in future high-energy particle accelerators,” Piot said. “The research will be performed at ANL in collaboration with staff at the Advanced Photon Source and the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator.”
Kelham, whose anticipated Ph.D. date is spring 2025, expressed gratitude for Piot. “I really appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given under his guidance,” Kelham said. “I’ve learned a lot under him.”
Kelham earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Purdue University Fort Wayne in 2019. He enrolled at NIU in 2020 to study beam physics and has been researching optics-based beam diagnostics.
“As long as I could remember, I always wanted to do research in the sciences,” Kelham said. “As early as high school, physics really became an area of interest for me. That interest focused on the study of optics as an undergraduate, and more so as a graduate student.”
One of his first professors at NIU was Piot, who became a valued mentor during Kelham’s development in DeKalb.
“He celebrates with you when you make major accomplishments and has been a great professor to work under,” Kelham said. “He also really cares about the wellbeing of his students.”
Kelham becomes the fifth NIU physics student since 2016 to win the prestigious DOE award, which aims to spur on emerging professionals to help the DOE’s effort to discover and innovate. Another of Professor Piot’s students won the award in 2021.
NIU is home to one of the best university accelerator physics programs in the nation. The program benefits from the proximity of major accelerator research facilities at Argonne and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Faculty members associated with the program collaborate with these laboratories and colleagues from around the world in high-priority accelerator projects and experiments. They also teach accelerator and beam physics courses at NIU.
Media Contact: Tom Parisi
About NIU
Northern Illinois University is a student-centered, nationally recognized public research university, with expertise that benefits its region and spans the globe in a wide variety of fields, including the sciences, humanities, arts, business, engineering, education, health and law. Through its main campus in DeKalb, Illinois, and education centers for students and working professionals in Chicago, Naperville, Oregon and Rockford, NIU offers more than 100 areas of study while serving a diverse and international student body.
