Auburn strengthens its national lab networks for students, faculty

Auburn students and faculty are forging connections beyond campus through partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy’s 17 national laboratories.

Leading the charge is Daniel Tauritz, who has spent nearly three years building bridges between Auburn and the nation’s most advanced research facilities.

As the university’s director of national laboratory relationships, Tauritz has turned what once seemed distant into tangible opportunities. From student trips and career fairs to funding vehicles and formal agreements, his work opens doors to internships, research projects and long-term collaborations.

“It’s all about getting people to see what we are doing here and vice versa,” said Tauritz, the COLSA Corporation Cyber Security and Information Assurance Endowed Professor in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “When faculty see what’s possible at the labs, they want to work together. When lab scientists see Auburn’s capabilities, they get excited about new collaborations.”

Meredith Osborne said she may not have landed a job at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico without attending the first Tauritz-led trip in December 2022.

“A friend mentioned it to me, and I thought it could be a cool way to spend part of my winter break,” recalled Osborne, then a junior in mechanical engineering.

Students participated in a “reverse” career fair during the visit, where their resumes were circulated among LANL staff. Osborne met the program leader for the Robotics and Automation Summer School, applied and was accepted. That summer experience led to her current role as a research and design engineer at LANL.

“I may never have heard of the lab or the opportunities within if it weren’t for Dr. Tauritz,” she said.

While becoming Tauritz’s first doctoral graduate at Auburn, Aaron Scott Pope completed a year-long internship at LANL. Now a cybersecurity research scientist there, he supports Auburn by serving on doctoral committees, mentoring students and helping Tauritz run campus competitions and training, such as Cyber Fire Puzzles.

“The relationship between LANL and Auburn has produced many fruitful collaborations, especially in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence,” he said. “Nearly every scientific field has some representation here and could benefit from expanded collaboration.”

Andrew Messier visited LANL with a group in December 2023. Then a senior in accountancy in the Harbert College of Business, he said he knew little about national labs, but the experience broadened his perspective. After earning two Auburn degrees, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Atlanta.

“While I didn’t go the route of working in a national lab, getting to see the relationship between Auburn and Los Alamos was inspiring,” Messier said. “I witnessed firsthand how important my university can be in advancing and shaping the next generation of scientists and business professionals.”

Steve Taylor, Auburn’s senior vice president for research and economic development, said the role is designed to expand research opportunities campuswide.

“Dr. Tauritz is that matchmaker, introducing our people to their experts and helping maintain those connections,” Taylor said.

Auburn’s strengths in areas such as advanced manufacturing and radio frequency identification have already attracted attention from national labs, but Taylor sees potential for much more.

Mark Liles, associate dean for research in the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM), said his “eyes were opened” during the Tauritz-led visit in 2023.

“You don’t appreciate the breadth of what they’re doing until you see it,” he said.

Since then, Liles has seen partnerships open doors for interdisciplinary research and student internships at multiple national labs.

“There’s so much benefit in having someone actively facilitating these relationships,” Liles said. “It’s not just about doing the science and publishing it; it’s about building connections that lead to internships, research projects and career opportunities.”

LANL, with nearly 18,000 employees, is currently the largest Department of Energy lab and the same site where J. Robert Oppenheimer developed the first nuclear weapons in the 1940s. But Tauritz emphasized that today’s national labs do far more, with priorities in a diverse set of areas related to national security such as energy, artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics.

Edward Thomas, COSAM dean and an internationally recognized plasma physicist, has facilitated relationships between the college and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) because he has his own history with PPPL researchers. His expertise is so highly regarded that the New Jersey-based facility recently appointed him to its advisory board.

“The role will give me some insight into how all the national labs, PPPL in particular, are broadening how they commercialize the work that they do,” Thomas said.

He noted that Auburn’s Department of Physics has been connected to several national labs since before he joined the faculty 25 years ago.

“Having someone on campus that can connect the work here with all the work at national labs is huge,” Thomas said. “We have several doctoral graduates working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and several students have visited Los Alamos, but we are hoping to build on that.”