Comment by tcpekin

I worked as a grad student in LBL/UC Berkeley for 5 years. At the time I didn't want to make a career of it, but if I had to go back to a national lab, that might be the one. The culture was department dependent, but at the Molecular Foundry was pretty good. The campus is gorgeous, it's not isolated like other national labs at all, pay is low compared to tech for the Bay Area, but not pennies, and the conversations and people you can meet are fantastic. Always lots of new faces with students and visitors, but the core group that I interacted with were all very kind, helpful, hardworking, and just fun to talk to about science! I can definitely recommend it.