2024 DOE Fellows Induction Ceremony

Yesterday, leaders responsible for cleaning up some of the most radioactive contaminated sites in the nation gathered on campus to recognize a dozen of our top students at the 2024 DOE Fellows Induction Ceremony. FIU is in the 29th year of a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Energy, with a focus on addressing the environmental challenges resulting from the nation’s nuclear weapons program and building a skilled workforce for decades to come.

The FIU’s Applied Research Center’s cutting-edge research assists in radioactive waste processing, soil and groundwater remediation, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. Even though it’s been almost 80 years since that infamous first atomic bomb test took place, it could easily take that long to fully remediate the nation’s most contaminated sites, including the Hanford site in Washington.

The ceremony also recognized the many stakeholders, including our ARC Advisory Board members like Chad Drummond of Drummond Carpenter, ARC Executive Director and Interim Dean, Ines Triay, and 20 ARC Mentors, including our director of research, Leonel Lagos, and Himanshu Upadhyay, Dwayne McDaniel, Amer Awwad, Ph.D., P.E., Pieter Hazenberg, Ganesh Govindarajan, PhD, Aparna Aravelli, Mellissa Komninakis, Walter Quintero, Yelena Katsenovich, Ravi Gudavalli Ph.D. and many more.

Already, 128 DOE Fellows have been hired by the Department of Energy, and other government agencies, and key industry partners. These FIU alumni are part of the critical workforce that will address the millions of gallons of radioactive waste in underground tanks, much of which is leaking into the nearby soil and groundwater.

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