The Research SLAM gives Livermore’s postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to hone their science communication skills on the local stage and beyond.
"The support from their colleagues and the positive feedback is crucial for them to develop what you see as the final product."
— Ted Baumann, postdoctoral program lead
On September 25, 2025, Lawrence Livermore postdoctoral researchers took turns standing on stage before Laboratory peers and judges to deliver a presentation under the most strenuous parameters they had ever followed: explaining their research to nonexperts in three minutes or less, using only one PowerPoint slide for illustration. Those deemed most successful in the endeavor earned the top three finishing spots. (See the box "The 2025 Livermore Research SLAM.")
The event, called the Research SLAM, has become an annual staple in the world of postdoctoral research at Livermore. The top finishers from 2024 were Nicholas Cross in first place, who was then a second-year postdoc and chemical engineer investigating energy technologies such as lithium and flow batteries for large-scale energy storage and transportation; Jillian McCool in second place, whose research focused on engineering immune cells for improved cancer targeting; and Caspar Donnison in third, who was a first-year postdoc investigating carbon dioxide management and land use policy at the time. These finalists elegantly conveyed their research to the judges and audience, but their polished talks didn’t appear out of nowhere—they represent the results of a multimonth program through which the Laboratory supported their growth and improvement.
Postdocs are an integral part of Livermore’s scientific and technical research efforts across all fields. Not only does the Laboratory provide these researchers with guidance to deepen their abilities in science at an interdisciplinary and world-class institution, postdocs in turn provide a wealth of new perspectives, techniques, and research ideas to the staff they work with, broadening the Laboratory’s base of exciting contributions to the world’s most difficult problems.
To celebrate, nurture, and uplift postdoctoral research is to encourage the next generation of senior scientists to have confidence in their work and their ability to spark innovation, as well as to highlight their critical research for a broader audience. Out of such incentives came the Research SLAM—a multilevel competition in which postdocs present their research to a broad audience under extreme time constraints. The SLAM is science communication in its truest form, requiring researchers to articulate their deeply technical work in a way that nonspecialists in the audience can understand and resonate with, at presentation lengths similar to an elevator pitch. Taking place at the local, regional, and national levels, the SLAM is a journey from start to finish. Any postdoc can take the first step by joining Lawrence Livermore’s competition and working to develop a compelling and digestible presentation about their work, a skill that will remain valuable throughout their research careers.
The Postdoctoral Journey
The journey from nervous researchers throwing their hats into the SLAM’s ring to appearing on stage as poised, polished presenters for the Livermore competition is focused and rigorous. Any postdoc wanting to take on the challenge of communicating their research in a fast and effective manner can register and present their work. “I had done longer versions of these talks before, but never in three minutes,” says Cross. “The SLAM interested me because I constantly find myself needing to make sure that people understand what I do, especially because the battery field is gaining a lot of traction and interest.” Donnison adds, “Today, we operate in an environment where information is published and shared in all directions, continuously pulling at our attention. The SLAM was a great way to learn how to summarize my work in a way that cuts through and is useful for listeners and readers.”
What Makes a Winning SLAM?
Livermore SLAM coordinators Christine Zachow, Michelle Perez-Robles, and Ted Baumann each look for something a little bit different when sizing up postdoctoral researchers’ presentations throughout the coaching process, but their most effective picks converge on a bottom line: successfully relating science to the nonexpert.
Christine Zachow: “I don’t have a scientific background, and the whole point of this competition for me is for postdocs to develop skills and be able to tell me what they do in a way that I can understand. That’s why I love this event so much—they become so good at breaking it down into words that make sense to me, no matter their field.”
Michelle Perez-Robles: “The key for me is that the postdocs are good storytellers. I look for presentations that tell me a story and make it interesting while also making sure that I’m really understanding their work.”
Ted Baumann: “As a judge, I initially look for creativity. Who has thought about a good hook that doesn’t take us into the weeds too quickly. As nonexperts in their fields, getting our attention requires a creative pitch that we can immediately connect with.”
Once these early-career researchers take the leap and enter the running, they receive initial training. At this stage, the Livermore SLAM team, composed of Livermore’s operations manager for the Academic Engagement Office and co-lead of the National Lab Research SLAM Christine Zachow, postdoctoral program lead Ted Baumann, and administrative lead Michelle Perez-Robles, looks for a promising start to the presentation, something that will attract even nonspecialists to listen to and learn from the presentation. (See box to the right.) Then, in a preliminary selection round, a panel of judges led by Baumann chooses 12 postdocs to undergo additional training to further hone their delivery and compete in the Livermore SLAM.
One of the most difficult parts of the process is initial storyboarding—determining what part of the research to focus on while keeping presentations under three minutes. Cross ultimately leaned on advice from prior presenters, which was to simply choose one element and go from there. “At first, I didn’t take that advice,” says Cross. “I picked everything and tried to go for it all, which ended up being more like eight minutes worth of information. I needed to iterate to take a very large pitch to something more focused and digestible.”
"The community environment helped create bonds among all of us and encouraged us to improve."
— Nicholas Cross, postdoctoral researcher
The SLAM team hosts multiple sessions throughout the summer in which the researchers practice and fine-tune their presentations within the cohort and receive coaching. Coaches include Baumann and Perez-Robles as well as Livermore communications manager Stephanie Turza, who offers a background in speech writing and presentation, and Jean-Luc Doumont, an engineer with a doctorate in applied physics who is also a worldwide instructor in science communication. During the summer sessions, contestants refine their presentation skills and work out any remaining kinks, such as moments lacking clarity or intrigue. “The postdocs were comfortable being vulnerable in front of their co-finalists, in putting themselves out there, practicing, making mistakes, and failing,” says Baumann. “The support from their colleagues and the positive feedback is crucial for them to develop what you see as the final product. The progress they make is amazing.” Cross adds, “It was rewarding to see how all our talks evolved over time. The community environment helped create bonds among all of us and encouraged us to improve.”
Doumont provided the added step of filming the contestants and helping them tweak even the smallest details of their presentations, including body language problems like putting their hands in their pockets. “Watching our videos was the most fun albeit embarrassing part of the process for me,” says Donnison. “Critically analyzing my speech and body language from that initial round was a humbling experience but also incredibly productive for sharpening the message and delivery that I wanted to get across.” During a preliminary event, 12 finalists are selected by judges that include past SLAM participants.
Finally, the early-career researchers are ready to present at the Livermore event, which consistently enjoys the participation of senior leadership, such as Laboratory Director Kimberly Budil or Deputy Director of Science and Technology Patricia Falcone. The panel of judges determines the top three Livermore presenters, awarding $4,000, $3,000, and $2,000 in prize money for first, second, and third places. These three researchers move on to the Bay Area SLAM. Since 2021, the crowd has selected a People’s Choice winner, independent of the judges, which can go to any of the participants.
Time and time again, the hours of coaching and practice pay off in the final product. “I’m afraid that the level of polish the postdocs achieve by the end is a barrier to the new class of postdocs thinking about participating, who worry that they should already be at that level,” says Baumann. “We stress to the next round of participants that the polish isn’t required up front. They should be able to articulate their science in a way that is appealing to the nonexpert. The rest comes with practice.” Adds Perez-Robles, “The best part for me is watching the participants become such confident people by the time they present at the competition.”
A Livermore-Led History
Lawrence Livermore can claim status as one of the catalysts for the entire Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory complex-wide SLAM, starting with its own Livermore competition. The three Livermore founders—Zachow, Annie Kersting, and Kris Kulp—took inspiration from the 2015 University of California (UC) Grad Slam, in which one graduate student from each UC, presented their research. Says Zachow, “I remember thinking, ‘We have to do something like this for our postdocs.’ So, we immediately started our own onsite SLAM in 2016.”
The first Livermore SLAM, headed by Kulp as the science lead and Zachow as the administrative lead, garnered enthusiastic support from the then Laboratory director William Goldstein. The event had visibility and attendance from senior management as well as Zachow’s counterpart at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Meg Rodriguez. The pair worked together after the successful inaugural Livermore event to bring it to Lawrence Berkeley the following year.
Continued success at both institutions led to the Bay Area Research SLAM in 2020, a competition that continues to include Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia national laboratories as well as the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The four laboratories now rotate hosting duties, and 2025 represents the fifth anniversary of the Bay Area Research SLAM.
The multilaboratory event sparked conversations about the potential for a national SLAM in 2023. Zachow and Rodriguez pitched the idea to Falcone and her counterparts at the other Bay Area national laboratories, and the concept made its way to the National Laboratory Director’s Council (NLDC), of which Budil was the chair. “The NLDC was on board before we knew they were on board,” says Zachow. “The council had already been advertising a national SLAM around their laboratories. Meg (Rodriguez) and I heard about their actions anecdotally and realized quickly that a national event would be a reality. From the beginning, the event has been valued and supported, and it’s a big deal around the complex.”
The Livermore SLAM format originally allowed three slides. However, participants used transitions that stretched the material presented. Current rules limit participants to a single slide and no transitions, matching the format of the Bay Area and national competitions.
The Bay Area and national SLAMs, while both comprised of DOE Laboratory postdocs or early-career employees, are disconnected. The top three finishers from the Livermore SLAM move onto the Bay Area SLAM as Livermore’s representatives. However, the Bay Area event is standalone, and its results do not determine who participates in the national SLAM. Rather, each Laboratory selects a representative for the national competition. Nicholas Cross earned this distinction in the 2024 competition and served as Lawrence Livermore’s national representative.
The 2025 Livermore Research SLAM
At the 2025 Livermore SLAM, Louisa Barama, Keegan Orr, and Rahul Jain most effectively accomplished the challenge of explaining their research to a nontechnical audience. All three earned spots in the 2025 Bay Area Research SLAM, where Orr placed second and Barama placed third and won the People’s Choice Award. Lawrence Livermore also secured the highest-scoring team trophy in the Bay Area event.
First-place finalist Louisa Barama tied her seismology research to recent earthquakes felt in the San Francisco Bay Area and the 2025 tsunami warning issued to much of the Northern California coast after a large earthquake in Russia. Seismologists characterize earthquakes such as these through accurate monitoring, determining size and type from the signatures they leave behind and ultimately informing disaster response.
Seismologists can also detect non-natural events, such as explosions, which leave a seismological signature. Barama studies the detection and characterization of such events through coda data—the lingering, scattered seismological signal after a main event. She compared coda to the ringing that remains in a concert hall after the music has stopped. To identify and characterize specific events, Barama breaks coda into frequency bands and calculates the magnitude of even small earthquakes or explosions—essential for national security. Says Barama, “This approach allows us to better characterize small earthquakes and distinguish between natural and artificial sources, helping communities stay safer and more prepared for whatever shakes the ground next.”
Keegan Orr, second-place finalist and People’s Choice Award winner at the Livermore event, resonated with the judges and audience alike by connecting his hypersonic materials testing research to the idea of global pizza delivery. Some spacecraft need to travel at hypersonic speeds—speeds more than five times the speed of sound. Using Livermore’s hypersonic wind tunnel (see S&TR, January/February 2024, Breaking Materials at Breakneck Speeds), Orr and fellow materials scientists can test material samples under intense stresses that emulate those generated when traveling at hypersonic speeds, such as high temperatures, shockwaves, and more. Specifically, Orr needs to know exactly what his samples are emitting, how quickly, and in what location the emissions occur.
He points specific laser colors at samples in the wind tunnel, where gases absorb some of the light and then fluoresce a different color. Cameras then capture the remitted light and detect sample emissions. This information allows the team to understand responses of existing materials and invent new ones, even some potentially durable enough for a spacecraft traveling around the world at hypersonic speeds—and fast enough to deliver a pizza anywhere on the planet in less than 20 minutes.
Rahul Jain, the third-place finalist at the Livermore SLAM, intrigued the audience with existential questions about what happens when we die and how long materials in the universe take to be recycled, culminating in his research timing the birth of future stars. “Stars are born, live dazzling lives, and eventually die with a spectacular explosion in the sky,” says Jain. “In doing so, they scatter their ashes, which help create new stars. Even our Sun was forged from such remnants.”
To determine how long it takes for a star’s remnants to give rise to a new one, Jain makes use of the radioactive isotope Hafnium-182, which is created by nuclear reactions during star explosions. He leads offsite nuclear experiments and data analysis, using Livermore’s high-performance computing capabilities, to determine how much Hafnium-182 is made. Coupling this data with the isotope’s 8.9-million-year half-life enables researchers to measure the recycling time for stars.
Investing in the Next Generation
While the prize money is a welcome bonus, the Research SLAM provides Livermore’s postdocs with several intangible and invaluable takeaways, too. First, the SLAM is an opportunity to spread the word about their research, critical in broadening understanding of the varied work taking place at the Laboratory. In addition, participants receive tools for communicating their work that support their future success in science. The Laboratory has tapped contestants for other opportunities since their competitions. Some have even maintained involvement with the SLAM in the years following their participation as a way to contribute to new postdocs’ experiences.
"The SLAM experience helps bridge this communication gap between science, policymakers, and society."
— Caspar Donnison, postdoctoral researcher
For example, Cross and Donnison became 2025 UC President’s Lindau Noble Meetings fellows, and Donnison testified at the California State Assembly Select Committee Hearing in October 2024, for which his research provided needed expertise related to climate. The 2023 SLAM finalists Widi Moestopo and Brandon Zimmerman presented a “Science on Saturday” talk to Bay Area school-aged children and were invited back to serve as emcees for the 2024 Livermore SLAM. Jennifer Chlebek and Mariana Reale-Bautista, finalists from 2022, served as judges for SLAM preliminaries in 2025 and 2024, respectively, after experiencing the value of the competition firsthand. Other SLAM contestants have put their communication skills toward earning DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program awards, technology transfer-related awards, and Excellence in Publication Awards, among others.
The SLAM’s value to early-career researchers’ futures can also be less obvious in the moment. Continued success in a scientific career requires the ability to articulate the importance of one’s work for the purpose of funding and research support. Thus, science communication is a crucial skill for postdocs to develop as they embark into their professional lives, and the SLAM is excellent practice—more deliberate practice than many will have throughout much of their careers. “Developing these skills early on means that postdocs can then talk to sponsors and write proposals effectively; it sets them up for success at an earlier stage of their careers,” says Zachow. This concept has proven to be the case in Livermore’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program, which Baumann explains sees funding awarded to a number of postdocs that have gone through the SLAM process.
Donnison says, “In today’s information age, a great idea that you can’t effectively communicate is not useful. So much fantastic and valuable research is taking place, but it’s often not presented in an understandable way. The SLAM experience helps bridge this communication gap between science, policymakers, and society. It was a great experience for me, and I want scientists to have more of these opportunities.”
—Lilly Ackerman
For further information contact Christine Zachow (925) 423-0633 (zachow2 [at] llnl.gov (zachow2[at]llnl[dot]gov)).
