By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
It is doubtful many Clay County residents have ever visited the Los Alamos National Lab, let alone worked at it. Yet that is what is Dr. Brooke Robyn Baumgarten will do in a few months. In March, the 2012 graduate of Hayesville High School begins a Postdoctoral research position at the Los Alamos National Lab.
She is unable to share details of the research she will do; however, she said she will mostly be doing research and working with the Department of Energy. “I want to do research to solve problems and make the world a better place,” Baumgarten smiled.
Despite not knowing exactly the path she would eventually take, her dream started forming when she was a child, growing up in Clay County. “I always wanted to make the world a better place, as cheesy as that sounds,” she added. “To catch the bad guy and make the world safer. I wanted to be like Abby from NCIS with a little more field and case experience. It turns out that I’m a pretty good chemist, but I still work towards making the world better.”
Baumgarten also believes her education at Hayesville High School helped prepare her for higher education. “I was always awkward and shy through my time at Clay County, but I also received an amazing education and the push that I needed to become the chemist I am today. Mrs. Gilgen and Mrs. Woodard especially prepared me with my chemistry and calculus classes.”
The daughter of the late Randy Baumgarten, Robin Sabo Shepherd and Robert Shepherd, Brooke Baumgarten attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. She earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry with minors in biology and mathematics from Catawba.
During her first year of college, she tutored because she was ahead of other students. “My teachers and friends also taught me that it was ok to be different. To be awkward, genuine, and nerdy, which was something I grew into at Catawba,” she continued. “But that confidence started with the teachers at Hayesville. I would also like to thank Mrs. Beal for the scholarship she provided that allowed me to go to the undergrad I chose. I was provided an excellent education at a cost that not many people are able to obtain. That education would not have been possible without the scholarship support I was provided.”
Baumgarten explained how she chose the education and career which will take her to Los Alamos. “My uncle was a college professor who use to work with the FBI,” she said. “His influence is one of the reasons I knew the general path I needed to take to get to my final goal. What I didn’t take into account, was that I’d be a pretty good researcher. That I can and love to solve problems, which I can do in the lab. I knew the general path I wanted to take, but graduate school really steered my love of research.”
Following her undergraduate work at Catawba, she attended grad school at the University of Central Florida in December 2021. She received a Ph.D. is Chemistry with a concentration in Analytical Forensic Chemistry.
She and her boyfriend of four years, Garrett Harris, will be moving to New Mexico with their two dogs in a few weeks. He works remotely for his company who has always been supportive of her continuing education. Until she starts her work at Los Alamos National Lab in March, she also has some more immediate plans. “We plan to take this time to travel and to get back into outdoor activities, something I’ve missed since leaving Hayesville.”
When asked if she sees herself moving back to western North Carolina, she replied. “I would love to say yes, but the reality is that what I want to do with my life I can’t do in western North Carolina. I am, however, moving to an area that very much reminds me of home.”
Even though Dr. Brooke Baumgarten may not be able to return to Clay County for employment, the county where she lived her entire life until college will always be special to her. She ended, “The people you grow up being around your whole life are always special, no matter how far away you live.”