On November 23, 2010 FIU’s Applied Research Center conducted the 2010 DOE Fellows Induction Ceremony and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Signing with Savannah River National Laboratory and Y-12 Security Complex. This year, Ms. Ines Triay (Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management) was the keynote speaker for the ceremony. Other distinguished guest included Dr. Paul T. Deason (Deputy Director, Savannah River National Laboratory), Gloria Mencer (SPO Manager, Socioeconomic Program Office ,Y-12 Security Complex), Charlie Barton (Manager, Mission Support Systems Management ,Y12 Security Complex), and FIU’s Applied Research Center’s Board of Directors. FIU was represented by Dr. Douglas Wartsok (FIU Provost), Dr. Andres Gil (Vice President for Research), Dr. John Proni (ARC Executive Director), Dr. Leonel E. Lagos (Director, DOE Fellows Program), faculty, staff, and students. Dr. Paul T. Deason and Ms. Gloria Mencer had the opportunity of interacting with all the DOE fellows by listening to their presentations in the morning lab tours and presentations. Dr. Ines Triay, distinswich guets, and FIU faculty had the opportunity to interact with our DOE Fellows during a poster exhibition following the induction ceremony. They were impressed not only by the student’s knowledge and accomplishments, but also their communication and presentation skills.
During this year’s Induction Ceremony, 11 new FIU (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) minority students were inducted as DOE Fellows.
- Yulyan Arias ( Undergrad, Environmental Engineering )
- Maite Barroso (Undergrad, Civil Engineering )
- Givens Cherilus (Undergrad, Electrical Engineering )
- Elicek Delgado-Cepero ( Graduate, Electrical Engineering)
- Janty Ghazi (Undergraduate, Electrical Engineering )
- Heidi Henderson (Graduate, Environmental Engineering )
- Kanchana Iyer (Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Engineering )
- Alexander Lopez (Undergraduate, Environmental Engineering )
- Sheidyn NG ( Undergraduate, Biomedical Engineering)
- Shina Rana ( Undergraduate, Electrical Engineering)
- Melissa Sanchez (Undergraduate, Environmental Engineering )
In addition, awards were presented to the DOE Fellows that won the DOE Fellows Poster Exhibition and Competition held in October 20, 2010. The posters winners were Mr. Stephen Wood (1st place for his poster entitled, “Unplugging of High Level Waste Transfer Pipelines: Method of Characteristics”), Mr. Rinaldo Gonzalez (2nd place for his poster entitled, “Numerical Simulation of Pulsed-Air Mixer Technology using Multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics Methods”), and Mr. Lee Brady (3rd place for his poster entitled, “Peristaltic Crawler for the Removal of High Level Waste Plugs).
For the second year, the DOE Fellow and Mentor of the Year Award were presented in the ceremony. Nominations were requested from DOE Fellows (to nominate their ARC mentors) and ARC Mentors (for nomination of their DOE Fellows). An ARC committee was established to review and select the winners. Based on the number and quality of the nominations two awards were presented for each category. The DOE Fellow Mentor of the Year Awards went to Dr. Yelena Katsenovich (mentoring and supervising DOE Fellows Amaury Betancourt, Denny Carvajal, Melissa Sanchez, Sheidyn NG, Yulian Arias, and Maite Barroso). The 2010 DOE Fellow of the Year award was given to Mr. Denny Carvajal (mentored and supervised by Dr. Yelena Katsenovich).
I wanted to let you know about an incredible opportunity made possible to FIU minority students thanks to the sponsorship and funding of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM). In an effort to overcome the challenges of an aging workforce, DOE-EM is actively and aggressively targeting college students across the US to enter DOE’s workforce.