Scholarship Winner
Silvina Di Pietro
Research Scientist, Chemistry & Material Science
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
We are very excited to share this Roy G. Post Foundation article featuring one of our amazing former DOE Fellows, Dr. Silvina Di Pietro. Silvi, joined FIU’s Science & Technology Workforce Development Program (DOE Fellows program) in 2015 as a graduate student research assistant pursuing a PhD degree in Chemistry. Her hard work and dedication resulted in an incredible ride that culminated in a NNSA Post-Doctoral Fellowship and fulltime employment at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. “It takes a village,” and we are all so very proud of all her accomplishments!!!!! Thank you to our sponsor, the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) for the leadership and commitments to STEM programs at colleges and universities across the US.
How has receiving a scholarship from the Roy G. Post Foundation impacted your education?
“Receiving the Roy G. Post Foundation scholarship, without a doubt, has leveraged my qualifications to other scholarship applications, job interviews, and cover letters/essays. Because I was a Roy G. Post recipient early in my graduate career, I feel the scholarship impacted my education much more and for a longer period than other graduate students who had received it later. At every scholarship application or CV I distributed, I was able to proudly say I was a 2016 Roy G. Post Foundation recipient. Especially when attending WM symposia 2017 onwards where I was able to place a sticky tag below my name on my WM lanyard.”
What has your education and/or career path been like since receiving your scholarship?
“Since receiving the Roy G Post scholarship, I’ve participated in three 10-week long summer internships at two different national laboratories [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)], I’ve successfully published six publications, two as first-author, and completed a 1-yr postdoctoral nuclear program within US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Most recently, I am proud to say I have been hired full-time (as of June 2022) as a Chemistry, Material Science Research Scientist within the Material Science Division at LLNL in Livermore, CA. Needless to say, I’ve stayed in the realm of research and development of nuclear applications.”
What did you enjoy most about your experience at the WMS conference when you received your scholarship?
“Meeting other fellow graduate fellows such as myself! It’s been a pleasure knowing how much they have grown within their job sector/career. For example, Hannah Paterson who works for Sellafield Ltd in the UK, is a member of the European Nuclear Society and is heavily involved with the Nuclear Institute Young Generation Network. Because she presented at the 2020’s “Young Professionals in Nuclear Science and Engineering an International Perspective”, it inspired me to also present at this roundtable discussion. I am proud to say I was a panelist for this very same session (053) during WM2022.”
WM2023 Scholarship Information
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