Kevin Harper

ORISE internship, surface exploration help launch researcher’s career

To go deeper into his education, Kevin Harper had to learn a high-tech way to treat a surface.

Harper gained this skill as a participant in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Laboratory Technology Internship Program, which is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

“I saw this program as an excellent opportunity to get practical experience, while at the same time it offered a chance to see some pretty interesting research,” he said.

The Kingston, Tenn., native researched alongside mentor William H. Peter and others in the Materials Processing Group at ORNL on the development of laser-fused surfaces for use in various applications. Laser-fused surfaces can be found in a wide variety of items from auto and aerospace components to medical devices and food-processing equipment.

During the program, Harper’s days in the lab were never the same.

“Each day is full of variety,” he said. “I usually worked on several projects simultaneously; so there was always something new and exciting that came around. One day I could be working on fusing metal coatings with a laser, and the next I could be creating a CAD (computer-aided design) drawing or working on a spreadsheet.”

The internship proved to be eye-opening.

“There are many more techniques used for processing metals than I thought,” Harper said. “The field broadens every day, as new materials and methods are developed. There is so much here that is unique and cutting-edge. I would have to say that I gained a lot of experience about many technical fields.”

An internship highlight for Harper was being able to work as a team with world-class researchers to find solutions to problems facing the materials community. “The experience I gained is priceless and has helped me to move forward into the technical field,” he said.

To say the least, Harper is a fan of the internship program.

“I highly recommend it to others,” he said. “It offers great opportunities for any student in the engineering technology field to get into the workplace and see exciting research, as well as a great opportunity to build the resume and possibly find a permanent job.”

The latter happened for Harper. After his internship ended in May 2010, Harper was offered a full-time job as a lab technician in the same ORNL group as his internship.

In addition to a full-time job, Harper is a student at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville. After Pellissippi, he plans to attend East Tennessee State University in Johnson City in the fall of 2010.