The BEAM Lab does outreach from the local Charlottesville community, to the professional societies we are involved in, to the country, and even extending to an international scale! Learn more about everything we are doing below!
Prof. Burns was nominated by the students at UVA to give a lecture for the "Double Take" series. Double Take is an event founded by former University president Jim Ryan, focuses on "Stories that Make You Think Twice" and highlights personal stories and experiences from UVA Engineering students, faculty, and staff. Nominations are made if "someone at UVA believes you have an important story to tell, and that sharing it will make our community stronger."
Prof. Burns decided to use this platform to tell a story about the history of his family, the stories passed on from generation to generation, and how that shaped him into the person he is today.
His favorite African Proverb is that “when an elder dies, a library burns to the ground.” Every chance he gets, he tries to tell a piece of his story so that those books never go unread.
Prof. Burns serves on the Board of Directors of 100 Black Men of Central Virginia (BMOCV), while also serving on the education committee in the organization.
The mission of this organization is to reduce the achievement between young men of African-decent, and young men of European- and Asian-decent in the field of mathematics.
This means Prof. Burns gets the opportunity to go to the school systems in Albemarle County weekly, mentor the students in the school system, keep them accountable, and assist with math and science to increase standardized test scores.
Prof. Burns sees this as one of his most impactful roles, and amongst his favorite.
The achievement gap (in terms of standardized test scores) has been reduced by 23% in Albemarle County, and our mission is still underway!
Prof. Burns served on a panel at the CNMS user meeting in Knoxville, TN to discuss why outreach in the sciences is so important, and stories of how he has seen his impact on the youth.
The panel was designed to be a very gentle reminder that while our primary objective is to make an impact through the scientific contributions we bring to this world, we should always keep an emphasis on making sure the next generation of scholars have an opportunity to contribute, and that they see representation in high positions.
Prof. Burns gets the opportunity to go to Kenya every summer (and at different points throughout the year). As a side quest, Prof. Burns travels to the small villages in the beautiful nation of Kenya and connects with the real people.
In this photo, Prof. Burns was visiting the village of his friend Peter Chege, at the school he built with his hands. The kids greeted Prof. Burns was songs, dances, and endless greetings.
The kids were amazing, the teachers were welcoming, and the entire village treated me like family.
Prof. Burns got to give a lecture, talked about life in America, and gave advice to the kids on how they can be a scientist one day.
Prof. Burns travels to Accra, Ghana to give a guest lecture to University of Ghana in the department of Materials Science and Engineering. The lecture was delivered the week of Independence Day in Ghana to increase interactions that Prof. Burns could have with leaders across the university and Ghana at large. The students and faculty were extremely welcoming, and in every way imaginable, Prof. Burns felt at home (in a lot of ways, he was).
Now, the BEAM lab has active collaborations with the University of Ghana and hopes to drive forward impactful science between the two nations. Stay tuned!
Prof. Burns welcomes high school students into the lab every summer from schools across Charlottesville. The students salaries are sponsored from the Community Outreach and Engagement Award, as well as a formal partnership the lab has with the department of human services (DHS) to support the mission of making materials science more accessible to the younger generation.
Throughout the summers, students work on a range of projects, from image processing of electron microscopy images, to 3D printing of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) parts in our lab.
Prof. Burns gets the opportunity to travel to Nyeri, Kenya every summer to strengthen collaborations between the U.S. and the semiconductor industry in Africa. This is done by delivering tutorials to students at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), engaging in joint research projects, and forming friendships that will last a lifetime.