Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Tianze Li

Scintillator-based Neutron Detection for Applications

Birks’ Law is a widely used model for predicting how much light a scintillator emits when exposed to ionizing radiation, but its applicability is limited to a specific range of energy loss per unit distance. This summer, I will extract data from published literature to expand the Scintillator Library, and support ongoing efforts at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory by helping collect and interpret experimental results from measurements at the 88-Inch Cyclotron. By improving the models that describe ionization quenching, this work contributes to more accurate descriptions of scintillator behavior. These improvements help advance neutron detection systems used in medical imaging, nuclear security, and fundamental research.

Message To Sponsor

Thank you to my donor for the opportunity to continue this project more intensively over the summer. I’m excited to make progress and further develop my lab skills in the coming months. This opportunity is helping me grow in ways that coursework alone never could, and I truly appreciate it.