The third annual DOE Fellows Poster Exhibition and Competition took place on October 20, 2010. The purpose of this event was to showcase the students’ research accomplishments for the past year as a result of their participation in various U.S. Department of Energy – Environmental Management (DOE-EM) related projects. A total of 16 posters were exhibited. Some of the projects showcased by the students were a result of their summer internship assignments at DOE Savannah River Site, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, or Hanford Site, and also their contributions to projects at the Applied Research Center (ARC). For some of the graduate students, these projects are also a part of their Thesis for Master’s degree. This year’s panel of judges comprised of Dr. Jeff Griffin (Associate Director for Environmental Management, Savannah River National Laboratory), Dr. Ajamu Banjoko (Director of FIU’s McNair Program), Dr. Michael Sukop (FIU Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Environment at the College of Arts & Sciences), and Dr. David Roelant (ARC’s Associate Director of Research). The poster exhibition and competition was attended by FIU faculty, ARC’s personnel and FIU students. Following the event, the judges had the opportunity to tour ARC’s laboratories and see the hands-on research work performed by the DOE Fellows. One of the visitors and judge from Savannah River National Laboratories, Dr. Jeff Griffin, commented on his impression of the DOE Fellows Program via an email sent to ARC’s Executive Director, Dr. John Proni:
“John,
I wanted to express my thanks to you and Leo for the invitation to visit FIU as well as for the opportunity to help judge the DOE Fellows poster contest. That turned out to be an absolutely wonderful way for me to gain good insight into the details of the Fellows’ work and the depth of their knowledge. As I told Leo during my visit, I was very impressed with the quality of the students – their level of knowledge, their poise, and their presentation skills were just outstanding. In addition, the work that I saw presented was very closely tied to real DOE-EM needs (as you would hope) and to real-world problems.” – Dr. J. Griffin (Associate Director for Environmental Management, Savannah River National Laboratory).
The top three poster winners will be announced during this year’s DOE Fellows Class of 2010 Induction Ceremony, to be held in Miami, Florida on November 23, 2010.
List of Posters presented:
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.