SBU Graduate Student Selected to DOE Office of Science Research Program

Stony Brook University mechanical engineering student Austin William Dick was one of 86 graduate students from across the country selected by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program's 2023 Solicitation 2 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 Graduate Student Research program is a unique opportunity for graduate students to complete their PhD training with teams of world-class experts aiming to answer some of the most challenging problems in fundamental science," said Harriet Kung, acting director of the DOE Office of Science. "Gaining access to cutting edge tools for scientific discovery at DOE national laboratories will be instrumental in preparing the next generation of scientific leaders."

Dick's research area is "Basic Science for Clean Energy and Decarbonization." His PhD advisor is Professor Carlos Colosqui in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Greg Doerk, his host at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials.

"We are delighted to learn of Austin's selection for the prestigious DOE SCGSR program," said Jon Longtin, interim chair for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and associate dean for research and entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "This is an outstanding opportunity for Austin, Stony Brook and Brookhaven National Laboratory to work together on nationally important topics of clean energy and decarbonization while providing world-class facilities and research expertise for his research."

Awardees were selected from a diverse pool of graduate applicants from institutions representing 31 states and Puerto Rico. Selection was based on merit review by external scientific experts. Since 2014, the SCGSR program has provided more than 1150 U.S. graduate awardees from 165 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 31% of SCGSR awardees are women, about 16% of the awardees attend Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), and 13% are from institutions in jurisdictions that are part of the Established 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. Awards were made through the SCGSR program's first of two annual solicitation cycles for FY 2023.