Five Graduate Students Selected to Conduct Research with BER Scientists at National Laboratories

DOE’s Office of Science has selected 87 graduate students representing 33 states for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program’s 2022 Solicitation 2 cycle. SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and secures our national position at the forefront of discovery and innovation. Five graduate students received awards to work on projects in the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program:

BER Environmental Microbiology Awardees

  • Raina Minault Fitzpatrick (Northern Arizona University) will work with Margaret Torn at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
  • Morgan Lindback (University of Michigan–Ann Arbor) will work with Xavier Mayali at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
  • Christian White (University of California–Berkeley) will work with Eoin Brodie at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

BER Environmental System Science Awardees

  • Riley Barton (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) will work with Allison Myers-Pigg at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
  • Nicole Hucke (University of Idaho) will work with Joel Rowland at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“The SCGSR program provides a way for graduate students to enrich their scientific research by engaging with researchers at DOE national labs, learning from world-class scientists and using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. In addition, they get valuable opportunities to network and observe firsthand what it’s like to have a scientific career,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Director of the DOE Office of Science. “I can’t wait to see what these young researchers do in the future. I know they will meet upcoming scientific challenges in new and innovative ways.”

After reviewing a diverse pool of graduate applicants from institutions around the country, external scientific experts selected awardees based on merit. Since 2014, the SCGSR program has provided over 1,000 U.S. graduate awardees from 159 universities with supplemental funds to conduct part of their thesis research at a host DOE national laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist. In this cohort, 30% of SCGSR awardees are women, 15% of the awardees attend Minority Serving Institutions, and 14% are from institutions in jurisdictions that are part of the Establishing Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

SCGSR awardees work on research projects of significant importance to the Office of Science mission that address critical energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges at national and international scales. Projects in this cohort span seven Office of Science research programs and three priority convergence research topical areas: Accelerator Science, Data Science, and Microelectronics.

Awards were made through the SCGSR program’s second of two annual solicitation cycles for FY 2022. Applications for the ongoing 2023 Solicitation 1 cycle are due 5:00 p.m. EDT, May 3, 2023. Graduate students currently pursuing Ph.D. degrees in areas of physics, chemistry, material sciences, biology (non-medical), mathematics, engineering, computer or computational sciences, or specific areas of environmental sciences that are aligned with the mission of the Office of Science are eligible to apply to the SCGSR program. The research projects are expected to advance the graduate awardees’ overall doctoral research and training while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE national laboratories. The award cohort from the 2023 Solicitation 1 cycle is expected to be announced in October 2023.

A list of the 87 awardees, their institutions, host DOE National Laboratory/facility, and priority research areas of projects can be found at the SCGSR website.

For more information on SCGSR, please go to the SCGSR home page.