DOE’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program Selects 44 Outstanding U.S. Graduate Students

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science has selected 44 graduate students representing 24 states for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program’s 2022 Solicitation 1 cycle. Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE National Laboratories, 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.

“The Department of Energy is committed to growing the American science and technology workforce. SCGSRs are one way we contribute to nurturing the incredible talent and curiosity in students from all walks of life to meet the great scientific challenges of the world,” said Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Director of the DOE Office of Science. “I know the future is bright for these students, and I’m honored that the Department of Energy can be a part of their stories.” 

Awardees were selected from a diverse pool of graduate applicants from institutions around the country. Selection was based on merit review by external scientific experts. Since 2014, the SCGSR program has provided more than 919 U.S. graduate awardees from 155 universities with supplemental funds to conduct part of their thesis research at a host DOE laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist. In this cohort, more than 25% of SCGSR awardees are women, about 27% of the awardees attend Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and 11% 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 six Office of Science research programs and one priority convergence research topical area – Data Science. Awards were made through the SCGSR program’s first of two annual solicitation cycles for FY 2022.

Applications for the ongoing 2022 Solicitation 2 cycle are due 5:00pm EST, November 9, 2022. An application assistance workshop will be held on October 20, 2022; prospective applicants can register here. 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 2022 Solicitation 2 cycle is expected to be announced around May 2023.

A list of the 44 awardees, their institutions, host DOE laboratory/facility, and priority research areas of projects can be found at https://science.osti.gov/WDTS/SCGSR/SCGSR-Awards.

For more information on SCGSR: https://science.osti.gov/wdts/scgsr.