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K-State Today Student Edition

September 17, 2018

Kansas State University graduate student awarded Department of Energy fellowship

Submitted by Communications and Marketing

Olivia Hull, a doctoral student in Christine Aiken's research group at Kansas State University, has been awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship to support her research into physical chemistry.

Hull, Rose Hill, received bachelor's degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Wichita State University. Fewer than six percent of applicants are chosen for the fellowship each year.

The fellowship, administered by the Krell Institute of Ames, Iowa, is funded by the DOE's Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Each year, the program grants fellowships to support doctoral students whose education and research focus on using high-performance computers to solve complex science and engineering problems of national importance. Since it was launched in 1991, the fellowship has supported 456 students at more than 65 universities.

Students receive full tuition and fees plus an annual stipend and academic allowance, renewable for up to four years. In return, recipients must complete courses in a scientific or engineering discipline plus computer science and applied mathematics. They also must perform a three-month research practicum at one of the 21 DOE laboratories or sites across the country.

Hull joins a group of 25 first-year fellows in 2018, bringing the total number of current fellowship recipients to 84 students in 21 states.

The fellowship and related practicum experiences are effective workforce recruitment tools for the national laboratories. Nearly a quarter of all fellowship alumni currently work or have worked in a DOE lab setting. Others pursue careers in academia, industry or government, where they introduce and advocate for computational science as a tool for discovery.