Nuclear Regulatory Commission Awards $200,000 for Pitt Nuclear Engineering Scholarship Program
PITTSBURGH (Oct. 8, 2019) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has awarded the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering $200,000 for the new Pitt Nuclear Engineering Scholarship Program.
The Pitt Nuclear Engineering Scholarships will award up to $5,000 per semester for students in co-op rotations, totaling up to $10,000 per year for two years. The students will be expected to be enrolled in the nuclear certificate program, pursue lab research in nuclear topics, and participate in the annual Nuclear Engineering Industry Symposium at Pitt.
“The Nuclear Engineering Scholarship will provide a springboard for our students onto an industrial or graduate path,” says Heng Ban, PhD, R.K. Mellon Professor in Energy and director of the Stephen R. Tritch Nuclear Engineering Program at the Swanson School. “Some parts of nuclear engineering cannot fully be taught in a classroom setting. Our goal is to provide students more than a certificate by supporting their experiential learning.”
The NRC’s grant award is meant to encourage careers and research in nuclear, mechanical and electrical engineering, health physics, and related fields. Pitt’s grant is one of 45 awarded this year to 33 academic institutions in 19 states and Puerto Rico, totaling more than $15 million.
For Pitt’s students, the NRC award promises to encourage students to gain valuable experience beyond the walls of Benedum Hall.
“Our students show great promise in the many facets of nuclear engineering, from design to construction and operation,” says Ban. “We want their experiential learning opportunities to lead to graduate studies; we want our scholars to be the future innovators and technical leaders of the nuclear enterprise.”
Contact: Maggie Pavlick