Sterling Harper of the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) was one of 32 graduate students across the country to be awarded a Nuclear Energy University Programs Fellowship given by the U.S. Department of Energy. Harper’s project focuses on modeling nuclear reactors. He is writing software that can be used to calculate how many neutrons of different energies are in a reactor and is designing tools to determine the reactor’s safety, failure modes, power potential, and radioactive waste production. Harper works with NSE professors Benoit Forget and Kord Smith.
As an NEUP graduate fellow, Harper will receive $50,000 annually over the next three years in addition to a summer internship at a national laboratory.
NSE undergraduates Luisa Kenausis, Sean Lowder, and Vivian Tran (who is also with the Department of Physics) are among 59 undergraduates awarded scholarships in nuclear energy-related engineering and science programs at universities across the country. Kenausis has completed three Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programs (UROPs) with Forget; Lowder will be spending this summer working with Professor Jacopo Buongiorno; and Tran has worked professors Forget, Michael Short, and Bilge Yildiz on four UROP projects. Undergraduates will each receive a $7,500 scholarship.
Learn more about NEUP Fellowships and Scholarships on the Department of Energy website.
