DOE – FIU Cooperative Agreement Program Review

Miami, Florida September 27 and 28, 2022

Florida International University and the US Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (DOE-EM) and Office of Legacy Management (DOE-LM) completed a two-day review of FIU’s Cooperative Agreement (CA). FIU’s applied research is performed under the DOE-FIU Cooperative Agreement (under Contract # DE-EM0005213) and provides technical support to DOE-EM and DOE-LM in the area of environmental remediation, environmental stewardship, and STEM minority student workforce development. The review included technical presentations by FIU’s Applied Research Center researchers, faculty, and DOE Fellow students. The review included active participation from DOE HQ, DOE national labs, and DOE contractors from across the DOE Complex.

Under the Cooperative Agreement, FIU provides critical support to the DOE-EM mission of accelerated risk reduction and cleanup of the environmental legacy of the nation’s nuclear weapons program. ARC’s applied research, technology development, demonstration and testing, and STEM workforce development covers major areas of environmental cleanup operations: radioactive waste processing, robotics, facility decontamination and decommissioning, soil and groundwater remediation, information technology, and artificial intelligence/machine learning. The applied research projects developed under the CA provide technical solutions for the DOE-EM and LM sites such as Hanford, Oak Ridge, Savannah River, Los Alamos, WIPP, Rifle and Mexican Hat.

The Cooperative Agreement also has a strong STEM workforce development program. The DOE-FIU Science and Technology Workforce Development Program trains and mentors FIU STEM students (undergraduate and graduates) and encourages them to pursue employment with DOE, DOE national labs, and DOE contractors.  The DOE Fellows are trained and mentored by ARC technical personnel in an effort to secure the next generation of scientists and engineers that will be responsible for solving the technical challenges of the DOE nuclear complex legacy due to seven decades of nuclear research and development and production of nuclear weapons.

DOE Fellows Aubrey Litzinger, Mariah Doughman, Phuong Pham, Stevens Charles, Caridad Estrada, Aurelien Meray, Joel Adams, Olivia Bustillo, Shawn Cameron, Philip Moore, and Nicholas Espinal presented their research accomplishments based on DOE-EM and LM research. For graduate students pursuing masters and doctoral degrees, this research serves as basis for thesis and dissertation.

Copies of all presentations given during the CA Program Review have been made available via the DOE-FIU CA website:

https://doeresearch.fiu.edu/SitePages/Welcome.aspx

FIU’s Applied Research Center researchers and DOE-EM personnel participating virtually in the Annual Research Review (left to right): Top Row: Angelique Lawrence, Genia McKinley, Jean P. Pabon; Middle Row: John Moon, Pieter Hazenberg, Joseph Sinicrope; Bottom Row: Yelena Katsenovich, John Dickson, Leonel Lagos, Walter Quintero (right side panel)

FIU’s Applied Research Center researchers and DOE Fellows participating virtually in the Annual Research Review (left to right): Top Row: Yelena Katsenovich; Middle Row: Angelique Lawrence, Pieter Hazenberg; Bottom Row: DOE Fellow Aubrey Litzinger, DOE Fellow Stevens Charle

For additional information, please contact the FIU Cooperative Agreement principal investigator, Dr. Leonel Lagos at lagosl@fiu.edu

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