PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was once again honored with the Handshake Early Talent Award, recognizing the laboratory as one of the nation’s top employers for recruiting emerging professionals. The award highlights PNNL’s sustained commitment to connecting early-career talent to opportunities, marking six consecutive years of recognition from Handshake—a career platform connecting college students and graduates to more than one million employers.  

Joshua Chong discovered PNNL through Handshake.  

While studying at University of Washington, Chong was searching for internship opportunities and stumbled upon the National Security Internship Program (NSIP).  

“I was finishing an engineering degree and applied for both a data science internship with NSIP and a more traditional engineering opportunity,” said Chong. “I had no idea if I would like data science, but it sounded really cool and I knew it was an emerging field.”  

During his internship, Chong realized the gravity of the work he was doing with the help of his mentor.  

“Even though I would do a small task, my mentor would say ‘Here's why it matters,'” said Chong. “And little by little I was given more to do. I was blown away by how much everyone wanted me to learn.”  

Today, Chong is a staff data scientist whose research centers on testing machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, on large data sets for specific use cases like chemical forensic applications.  

Similarly, Alex Smith received a message from a PNNL recruiter on Handshake that would eventually launch his career journey from research associate to mechanical engineer at PNNL.   

Smith’s passion for building started early, sparked by an interest in creating costumes and props for theater productions. At PNNL, he specializes in building vacuum systems. 

“Scientists need someone to build machines to do their research,” said Alex. “For instance, we could have a sample that needs to move from point A to point B, and it cannot touch air no matter what. It's up to me to figure out how to get it from here to there and to build something that can facilitate that.”  

Smith is driven by science mission and impact. He has two patents pending for tools he developed to enhance the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory's capabilities. The first is for a 3D-printed tip that makes it easier to insert and remove samples in a scanning electron microscope. The second is for a little box of air that behaves like a microscope slide for researching particulates, like pollen or aerosols, that can only exist in air. 

“Before I even started here, it was my aspiration to build something that mattered and that people were fond of,” said Smith. “I realized that in a laboratory setting I can really meet that goal.”  

As PNNL celebrates another Handshake Early Talent Award, the experiences of Chong and Smith underscore a simple truth: investing in people strengthens the Lab’s scientific mission and fuels the innovations that shape our nation’s future. 

“We’re honored to receive this recognition,” said Kris Gauntt, PNNL Talent Acquisition manager, “It reflects our sustained efforts across the Lab to engage early-career talent and create real pathways into PNNL.”