Sen. Martin Heinrich examines some of the features of a model solar-powered home built by camper Anna Bochkareva. Sen. Heinrich joined Lab Director Thom Mason to explore final projects on the camp’s 10th anniversary. Photo Courtesy LANL
Camp founder and co-organizer Anna Llobet, right, talks with Sen. Heinrich, left, and Lab Director Thom Mason about how the camp has grown since its inception in 2017. Photo Courtesy LANL
Alyssa Macias (ninth grader at Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science) and Jayron Vasquez (10th grader at Capital High School, Santa Fe) work on a bridge-engineering project. Photo Courtesy LANL
LANL NEWS RELEASE
Imagine you’re a high schooler who’s spent the previous two weeks learning about a range of science topics and working on your multi-day project. It’s the last day of camp and you’re getting ready for the final presentations to parents, the volunteers who have helped during the camp and other guests.
Then you learn that among the attendees are a U.S. senator and the director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. No pressure, right?
That was the experience for the students at the 10th annual Summer Physics Camp June 8-19 at the New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe, providing an immersive STEM experience for middle and high school students from across New Mexico.
Created 10 years ago by Laboratory physicist Anna Llobet, the camp is staffed by more than 130 volunteers from Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories and elsewhere and funded by the nonprofit STEM Santa Fe.
This year, the students rose to the challenge of their VIP guests, discussing what they’d learned during the camp and answering questions about the projects they’d been working on: building remotely operated robotic hands or model solar-powered houses with proximity sensors, lights and fans.
The free two-week camp aims to inspire students to pursue higher education and empower them to explore careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with the hope that they will one day contribute to making the world a better and safer place for everyone.
Thirty-four attendees from 12 New Mexico counties explored the science of the unseen forces that underpin our world, from electricity and gravitational waves to the quantum realm and the microscopic machinery of life.
A residential option allowed 14 students from outside Santa Fe to attend, expanding access to attendees from more rural parts of the state.
“This was my first year serving as a co-leader with Anna at the camp,” said postdoctoral research associate Dylan Tharp Eralie. “It was amazing to see the growth in the students over the two weeks. They all worked so hard to learn and improve, and I just can’t wait to watch their careers take off in whatever fields they choose!”
The first week of camp included a tour of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where students visited the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center linear accelerator (LANSCE) and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to see how some of the scientific concepts they were exploring are used in cutting-edge research.
As part of the second week, students put their new knowledge and skills into action, working on their final projects.
“From day one when they first built a working DC motor to the final day where they are sharing their incredibly creative houses and robotic hands, you can see not only the improvement in their technical skills but also their confidence,” Tharp Eralie said.
During his remarks at the final presentations event, Sen. Heinrich described his own engineering background and how it has helped him in his professional and legislative life, particularly around conservation and energy issues.
Lab Director Thom Mason asked the campers to raise their hands if their experiments worked the first time. Only one hand went up.
“Science requires you to try and try again,” he stated, underlining that the committed and curious camp attendees were exactly the sort of young people the Laboratory is looking to hire.
The Summer Physics Camp has already proven to be a pipeline for future STEM leaders, with at least two former attendees now working at Los Alamos and 19 other alumni from previous years pursuing Laboratory internships in 2026 at the high school, undergraduate and graduate levels.
This year’s camp was supported by Los Alamos National Laboratory, Triad National Security, Sandia National Laboratories, STEM Santa Fe, New Mexico Consortium, Delle Foundation, N3B, Pueblo Alliance LLC, Herrera Coaches Inc, SAGE, Hawaii Science & Technology Museum, Hawai’i State Department of Education, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society Four Corners, New Mexico School for the Arts, J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee, NM Network for Women in Science and Engineering, Los Alamos Women in Science, STEMArts Lab, and private individuals.