Steve Edstrom Memorial Internship Fund

Steve Edstrom was a strong supporter of summer internships and educational opportunities at SLAC, mentoring students, and providing a work environment that was safe and accessible to new laser operators. Steve’s family has requested that a fund be established to support a position in the LCLS Summer Internship Program for exceptional undergraduate students to make contributions to the SLAC laser program in the tradition that Steve pioneered. The Steve Edstrom Memorial Internship Fund will help inspire students and honor the legacy of Steve’s many contributions to laser education, laser technology, and the scientific achievements they have enabled at SLAC.

Winners of the award are honored in the ceremony at the conclusion of the internship poster session, presided by the Director of LCLS and the Director of the Summer Internship Program, with a rememberance for Steve and his enduring contributions to SLAC and the internship program. The award is $500, funded by this campaign.

Congratulations to the most recent winner of the Edstrom award for the outstanding intern project in laser science and engineering. This year’s winner is Kelsey Stallard from University of California, Davis, who worked with mentors Matt Bain and Kirk Larsen. Kelsey's project was to develop a method for creating ultrafast, deep ultraviolet (DUV) laser pulses for experients involving the electronic properties of atoms and molecules.

Steve Edstrom internship award winners:

2025: Kelsey Stallard, UC Davis

mentors: Matt Bain, Kirk Larsen

project: "Generation and Characterization of Femtosecond DUV Laser Pulses via Four Wave Mixing in Hollow Capillary Fibers" (link to poster coming soon)

2024: Marissa Kuo, Santa Clara University

mentors: LeRoy Eschelman & Donny Magana

project: "Laser Safety PLC Improvement Project"

2023: Ben Armentrout, Duke University

mentor: Eric Cunningham

project: "Operational Analysis at the LCLS-I Photoinjector Laser"

2023: Ebram Youssef, University of Rochester

mentor: Mat Britton

project: "Spectral Phase Algorithms for Reliable Reconstruct"

2022: Carson Convery, Columbia University

mentor: Eric Cunningham

project: "Optimized Fourier Filter for Improved Laser Amplification Simulation"