Financial Aid & Scholarships

The Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and the College of Engineering offer many scholarships to undergraduate students. Learn more about our scholarship opportunities.

LSU Nuclear Regulatory Commission Scholarship and Fellowship

In an effort to develop a workforce capable of supporting the design, construction, operation, and regulation of nuclear facilities and the safe handling of nuclear materials, the LSU USNRC Scholarship and Fellowship program invites applications for:

  • Two-year scholarships of $10,000/year for undergraduate students enrolled and matriculated in the Nuclear Power Engineering (NPE) minor.
  • Two- to four-year fellowships of $35,334/year for graduate students (MS/PhD program) of Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering or Department of Geology & Geophysics.

Eligibility Guidelines

Scholarship:

  • US citizen or permanent resident
  • GPA 3.0 or higher within major and overall
  • Register for Nuclear Power Engineering Minor (prerequisites may be waived by the instructors for outside ME major students)
  • Full-time LSU students

Fellowship:

  • US citizen or permanent resident
  • GPA 3.3 or higher within major and overall
  • Admitted into MS/PhD program of Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering or Department of Geology & Geophysics or LSU Graduate School (for incoming students)
  • Full-time LSU students

Awards

Scholarship

We are expected to make eight (8) scholarship awards to eligible students each year. An additional eight (8) students may be supported at $10,000/year. To be eligible for continuation of the scholarship, students must meet the minimum criteria. The awards will be made on a semester-by-semester basis.

Applications should consist of:

Applications will be evaluated by a panel of experts in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Criteria for evaluation are as follows:

The applicant: Potential for a career that will impact nuclear energy and related discipline. Other important criteria include academic achievement, creativity, and personal statement.

Programmatic Requirements: The ability to sign the NRC service agreement.

https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/grants/scholarship-svc-agreement.pdf


Fellowship

We are expected to make three (3) fellowship awards to eligible students each year. To be eligible for continuation of the scholarship, students must meet the minimum criteria. The awards will be made on yearly basis.

Students should apply to the MS/PhD programs of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, or Department of Geology & Geophysics, or LSU Graduate School (for incoming students). In their application, students should mention they are interested in being considered for the NRC Fellowship award. In addition, they should fill out the following application form for follow-up with the respective departments.

  • A completed cover sheet (PDF).
  • A current CV
  • One-page research statement
  • Half-page statement on how the research will advance nuclear science/technology/energy

The eligibility of NRC fellowship will be evaluated only after the applicant is eligible to be admitted to his or her respective department (which are evaluated by a separate departmental selection process and not related to fellowship selection panels). Applications will be evaluated by a panel of experts in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. Criteria for evaluation are as follows:

The applicant: Potential for a career that will impact nuclear energy and related discipline. Other important criteria include academic achievement, creativity, and personal statement.

Programmatic Requirements: The ability to sign the NRC service agreement.

https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/grants/scholarship-svc-agreement.pdf


Apply

For the Scholarship:

Option 1. E-mail application package as one PDF file to: mgartia@lsu.edu or luf@lsu.edu

Option 2. Through CoE scholarship application portal at https://lsu.academicworks.com.

For the Fellowship:

All ME applicants: E-mail application package as one PDF file to: mgartia@lsu.edu or luf@lsu.edu

All Geology and Geophysics applicants : E-mail application package as one PDF file to jianwei@lsu.edu


Timetable

All scholarship/fellowship applications are generally reviewed at the start of the fall and spring semesters. There is no deadline. So, if you are interested in applying and meet the minimum criteria, send in your application packages.


Faculty Advisors for Fellowship

  • Dr. Manas Ranjan Gartia

Gartia joined LSU Mechanical Engineering as assistant professor in 2015 after receiving a PhD in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has more than 12 years of experience in academic and industrial research related to nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics, passive safety systems, and sensor development. His research interests include development of photonics and spectroscopy-based sensors and detectors for nuclear forensics, nuclear waste management, and global security applications. He has published more than 70 journal and conference papers, and holds six patents (issued/pending).

Gartia Laboratory Website

Google Scholar Profile - Gartia

  • Dr. Fengyuan Lu

Lu received his PhD in Nuclear Engineering in 2012 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). His research group focuses on nuclear materials, including nuclear fuels, advanced waste forms, and structural materials, as well as radiation damage effects. He has authored and co-authored 33 peer-reviewed publications.

Nuclear Energy Materials Group

Google Scholar Profile - Lu

  • Dr. Dimitris Nikitopoulos, Brief bio, website, google scholar

Nikitopoulos is the chair of the LSU Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. His research interests include experimental and modeling work on boiling two-phase flow in vertical pipes, non-linear stability analysis of free shear flows, and development and use of laser-based diagnostics, including Phase-Doppler bubble size and velocity measurement, Confocal micro-PIV for measurements of 3D distribution of nanoparticle velocity, concentration, and deposition rates.

Google Scholar Profile - Nikitopoulos

  • Dr. Jianwei Wang

Wang is an assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at LSU. His research interest is in nuclear and earth materials. His research emphasizes the understanding of crystal structure, electronic structure, crystal chemistry, defects, diffusion, phase stability, and thermodynamics of oxide materials, including nuclear fuel and nuclear waste materials. He is implementing free energy methods for nuclear materials by extending the first-principles molecular dynamics. He has more than 16 years of experience in computational materials research using first-principles calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. He has extensive experience in programming for various molecular modeling applications and using high-performance computers. He is the author or co-author of more than 45 peer-reviewed journal publications.

Jianwei Wang's Personal Site

Google Scholar Page - Wang


Scholarship Selection Committee (2018-2019)

  • Dr. Manas Ranjan Gartia
  • Dr. Fengyuan Lu
  • Dr. Marcio De Queiroz
  • Dr. Hunter Gilbert

Contact

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Manas Ranjan Gartia (Email: mgartia@lsu.edu) or Dr. Fengyuan Lu (Email: luf@lsu.edu)

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Louisiana State University

3261 Patrick F. Taylor Hall, Baton Rouge, LA  70803