The Department of Energy has announced its annual scholarships for students studying nuclear science and engineering.
Forty-two undergraduates at 20 colleges and universities will receive $5,000 scholarships to cover educational expenses for the coming year. Thirty-three graduate students at 19 schools will receive fellowships worth $50,000 annually for three years, plus $5,000 to fund an applied research internship at a national lab or a similar facility. In all, the awards from the DOE's Integrated University Program total about $5 million for 2014. That money will go to schools across the country. This year, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will be the recipient of the largest number of awards, with nine undergraduate scholarships and three fellowships.
The total amount set aside for the program is comparable to 2013, when DOE announced 37 scholarships and 31 graduate fellowships. More than 400 students have taken part in the program since 2009. According to a DOE release, more than 95 percent of previous fellowship recipients went on to pursue careers in nuclear energy.