2026 SLAM JUDGES 

Mary Barnum serves as Senior Advisor to the Deputy Lab Director for Operations/COO, providing strategic counsel on institutional initiatives in governance, risk management, and organizational effectiveness. With more than 20 years of experience in public-sector administration, she has led enterprise-wide efforts that strengthen operational performance and cross-organizational collaboration. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab in 2018, she served as Chief of Staff to the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Berkeley. A two-time recipient of Berkeley Lab’s Director’s Award for Exceptional Achievement, she holds an MBA and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Public Administration focused on mentorship and leadership in complex scientific organizations.

Rhianna Hohbein, PhD, is a Senior Science Officer with the Disaster Resilience Initiative at the California Council on Science and Technology. Rhianna helps execute the delivery of CCST’s Science Services, including workshops, expert briefings, and policy briefs.

Rhianna received her PhD in Integrative Conservation in Forestry and Natural Resources from the University of Georgia. Her dissertation research examined the impacts of jurisdictional boundaries and institutional collaboration on the conservation of spectacled bears in Colombia.

Prior to joining CCST, Rhianna worked as a postdoctoral associate with the Network for Engineering with Nature — a transdisciplinary partnership between the University of Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers advancing the science behind natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions. Rhianna completed her BS in Ecology and Conservation Biology at the University of Idaho.

Jeff Neaton is responsible for Berkeley Lab’s research enterprise and serves as the Lab’s chief research liaison with the DOE Office of Science, the University of California, the national labs, and other key partners. He joined Berkeley Lab in 2003, and began his role as Interim Deputy Laboratory Director for Research and Chief Research Officer in 2026.

Neaton brings more than two decades of scientific leadership experience in both a national laboratory and academic setting, most recently serving as Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences at Berkeley Lab, overseeing the Chemical Sciences and Materials Sciences Divisions, as well as the lab’s two Basic Energy Sciences-sponsored national scientific user facilities, the Advanced Light Source and the Molecular Foundry. He also serves as a Professor in the Department of Physics at U.C. Berkeley, and as a Member of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute, a partnership between UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab.

His research interests are in the theory of materials and condensed matter, and in developing and using computational and data-driven methods to predict, understand, and control phase behavior and electronic phenomena in complex materials from first principles. He serves on numerous international advisory boards, and from 2012-2018, he served as Division Associate Editor for Physical Review Letters. He is the recipient of a 2017 NERSC High Impact Scientific Achievement Award, and he was the 2018 Pariser-Parr Distinguished Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina and the 2026 Pritchett Lecturer in Materials Science at Georgia Tech. The author of more than 300 publications, he is an ISI Highly-Cited Researcher. 

Neaton has a deep commitment to workforce development, cultivating stewardship, and collaboration across research divisions, operations, federal agencies, and the national lab complex. He oversees Berkeley Lab’s research support functions, and continues to steer long-term development projects such as the upgrade of the Advanced Light Source, the world’s leading soft x-ray source.

Neaton received his B.A. in physics and astrophysics in 1995 from the University of Minnesota, his Ph.D. in physics in 2000 from Cornell University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers University 2000-2003, and later at Berkeley Lab from 2003-2005.

Alicia Roy is a PhD-trained humanist and expert in the field of postdoc and graduate student professional and career development. Since 2026 she has been Director of GradPro, the graduate student professional development hub in the UC Berkeley Graduate Division, where she coordinates programming and resources to support graduate students in successfully completing their programs and transitioning into their careers of choice. She previously worked at The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, where she managed career and professional development for postdocs and graduate students in the biomedical sciences and collaborated extensively with colleagues and institutions across the Bay Area, including Berkeley Lab, UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and Genentech.  

Dr. Eric Schwegler was named Director of Academic Engagement Office & Science Education at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in April 2022. He oversees a broad range of educational science and technology programs and initiatives that advance the mission and vision of the Laboratory. Aligned with senior leadership, Dr. Schwegler strengthens the Laboratory’s core science and engineering competencies through engagement with academic institutions. In addition, Schwegler oversees LLNL’s institutes and centers, builds strategic partnerships to foster collaborative research and development, and nurtures a pipeline of talent to secure a top-tier science and technology workforce.

Prior to his current role at LLNL, Schwegler served as Director of Sponsored Science within the Office of the Deputy Director of Science and Technology (DDST) from 2017–2022. Schwegler joined the Laboratory in 1998 as a postdoctoral researcher and has held roles of increasing responsibility, serving as Quantum Simulations Group Leader in the Physical and Life Sciences Directorate from 2005 to 2017.

Schwegler holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Computer Science from Southwestern University and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013 and serves as member of the Leadership Team for the Critical Materials Institute, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub.

Gino Segrè is managing director of Bakar Bio Labs at BBH, overseeing all administrative operations of the incubator and selection and integration of startup companies. As a former incubator director with QB3 and more than 15 years experience working at established life science companies, he provides strategic and funding advice to startup companies.