Two graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin, Albina Khasanova and Emily Raulerson, received fellowships from the Department of Energy to carry out research in one of 12 DOE national laboratories.
The fellowship is part of the DOE's Office of Science Graduate Student Research program, which awards graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. in STEM fields access to DOE facilities to conduct their doctoral dissertation or thesis research. There were 49 recipients in total from the 2019 Solicitation 1 cycle.
Raulerson received a fellowship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to research materials used for solar capture, by breaking them down to a very small scale to understand how these nanoscale materials interact with light. This research aims to understand how to apply and develop this technology for solar cells, as well as broader technology.
Khasanova's fellowship will allow her to work at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to research plant science for sustainable bioenergy. Bioenergy is renewable energy obtained from recently living organic materials, such as crop waste or forest residue. Her proposed research is aimed at investigating how plants interact through their root systems with microorganisms in the soil, which can be beneficial for plant productivity and regulate how plants are able to withstand drought. This could provide new avenues for plant breeding and improve plant sustainability.
Raulerson joined chemist Sean Roberts' Lab at UT Austin in fall 2016 after graduating from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Applied Mathematics. After moving from Russia and graduating with a Master's Degree in Plant Biology at John Carroll University in Cleveland Ohio, Khasanova was part of a multi-institution research team led by integrative biologist Thomas Juenger. Following two years on the team, she joined Juenger's laboratory as a graduate student in the Plant Biology Program.
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