Queensborough Radiation Safety Alumna Makes History At Brookhaven
Since 2023, Queensborough and the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have partnered together to create the Developing Next Generation Radiation Safety Professionals (or simply Radiation Safety) program, which has students in one of our science programs take two courses in radiation safety and then go to BNL for hands-on internships over the summer.
Many who’ve participated in the program have gone on to perform impressive feats, such as being named a Cooke Transfer Scholar and speaking at an international conference, but one recent achievement by aformer student — Samanta Sonia Seegopaul — might have topped them all.
Being the first QCC alum to be hired at BNL with only an A.S. degree.
Seegopaul is currently a Junior Radiation Control Technician (RCT) at BNL where she’s completing qualification cards, training and gaining hands-on experience. Before that, however, she was a first-generation graduate who participated in the Developing Next Generation Radiation Safety Professionals program in 2024-25.
And though Queensborough is what ultimately allowed her to study at BNL, our college wasn't where she was first exposed to the Laboratory.
Rather, that exposure came in 2023 while in the midst of a co-op program for bioengineering when representatives from BNL came to her former university for a speaker conference. “The lecture hall was so packed that students were sitting on stairs,” she recalled.
Evidently, this conference left a lasting impression on her, because when she later learned that BNL had a partnership with Queensborough, she leapt at the opportunity to enroll and grab a spot.
“The program sounded very interesting and the fact that there was a financial incentive for learning what I wanted to explore was pretty good,” she recounted. “I contemplated at first making such a drastic decision then thought to myself, 'why not take the risk?’”
And so, she did.
She came to Queensborough, was accepted into the program, and soon took courses like RAD-101 and RAD-102 thanks to the work of program directors Dr. Sharon Lall-Ramnarine and Dr. Paul Sideris. Both of whom were elated by Seegopaul’s accomplishment:
“I am thrilled that Samanta secured a junior RCT position at BNL,” Dr. Lall-Ramnarine exclaimed. “She has overcome many personal challenges to complete her associate degree at QCC while juggling family responsibilities, coursework and research in the Radiation Safety program. Her accomplishment is a major outcome for our program. It’s validation that our efforts as mentors and program directors are leading to life-changing opportunities for our students. I am extremely happy for her and proud of her.”
“Samanta filled one of two positions for a Junior Radiological Control Technician at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL),” stated Dr. Sideris. “Dr. Lall-Ramnarine and I are very grateful to her BNL mentors, Tom D'Auria and Dr. Giuseppe Camarda, who kindled her interest in the field and provided the initial training during her internship in Summer 2025. I was very impressed with Samanta's perseverance while she was in QCC's Radiation Safety Program, and her professionalism at the national laboratory during her 10-week internship. Both Dr. Lall-Ramnarine and I are very proud of her!”
As for how she actually managed to make said accomplishment? Unlike the first part of the story, this part is predicated on far less risk.
In July 2025, she decided to sit in on D’Auria’s triannual Radiological Control (RadCon) Program Assessment with a senior RCT. Impressed by her work up to this point, he thought she would be a good fit for an RCT role and thus recommended her to his supervisors.
What followed was “a standard application process followed by an interview.”
“I then basically went to the head of the Radiological Control Division and presented my summer research project to him,” Seegopaul recounted. They were impressed with my statistics-based research project on ‘The Role of Radiological Protection in Operational Excellence at Brookhaven National Laboratory’”
And the rest, as they say, is (recent) history.
For Seegopaul, her employment at BNL is a “full-circle moment” — one she feels she wouldn’t have accomplished was it not for the support of a plethora of people, ranging from her relatives to her mentors from QCC and BNL.
But this is only the beginning.
From here, Seegopaul is looking forward to more milestones: First, completing the Department of Energy Radiation Control Technician (RCT) certification exam.
And after that?
Taking a student under her wing and guiding them as she once was.
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