Nine postdoctoral appointees at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory received 2022 Outstanding Postdoctoral Performance Awards. The awards were established by Argonne to recognize postdoctoral researchers who have made significant contributions to their research field, shown ingenuity in problem solving, demonstrated collaborative and leadership ability, made a significant impact on Argonne and DOE missions, and demonstrated Argonne’s core values through their work.

Kathleen Beilsmith of the Data Science and Learning Division was one of five postdocs who received the Postdoctoral Performance Award in Applied and Engineering Research for their work seeking solutions to problems through the development of new materials and methods, creating and designing solutions to real-world problems, implementing process improvements, and improving final products.

Beilsmith developed tools for the DOE Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) and enabled the cross-disciplinary use of genetic data for the Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem. She developed a reporting format that makes microbial data available to researchers and modelers who do not have the bioinformatics expertise to process the raw data.

“For me, this award is a recognition of the community that has supported me at Argonne,” said Beilsmith. ​“I’m especially grateful to my mentors Sam Seaver and Pamela Weisenhorn, as well as the members of Chris Henry’s team, for collaborating on the scientific work mentioned in the award, supporting education and outreach work, and celebrating accomplishments of all kinds. I am honored to work alongside all the postdocs doing outstanding research at Argonne.”