Graduate Student Research Experiences
The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) provides well-rounded laboratory experiences that expand graduate students’ expertise beyond the traditional university setting. Some graduate students come to ORISE looking for the right setting to conduct their thesis research; some are master’s students preparing to pursue their doctorates; some are looking for a program to help fund their education; others seek or a short-term experience, like a summer internship.
The diverse collection of programs available to graduate students meet a variety of needs across many different career paths.
Experiences of graduate participants are highlighted in the following profiles and videos:
Anna Bruton
Anna Bruton spent the summer of 2009 at Howard University researching the responsiveness of law-enforcement officers during and after Hurricane Katrina.
Emily Fischer
Emily Fischer was a participant in the Global Change Education Program (GCEP), which was established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to promote undergraduate and graduate training in support of DOE's global change research activities.
Matt Jaramillo
As part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Fellowship program, Matt Jaramillo studied the use of spoken words to assess personalities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during the summer of 2009.
Kristen Lancaster
Kristen Lancaster assisted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by writing specialized software that will gather safety information, including details about radioactive materials carried by trucks, at interstate weigh stations.
Yashema Mack
Florida A&M student Yashema Mack analyzed data from the world’s fastest supercomputer, putting her computer skills to use for nuclear technology advancement at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Sarah O’Brien
2008 Marvin L. Wesely Distinguished Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship Award winner Sarah O’Brien explored how tallgrass prairie land formerly used for farming rebuilds organic matter, or humus, that was lost through cultivation.
Amber Stoesser
Amber Stoesser, a participant in the DHS Scholarship and Fellowship Program, created interesting and innovative curricula for teaching the next generation of terrorism researchers.
Augusto Tentori
Augusto Tentori, a participant in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Scholarship and Fellowship Program, used his expertise in microfluidics to help develop a prototype device for human radiation exposure detection.
Mary Wilson
Mary Wilson spent a summer researching the characterization of RNA dependent RNA polymerase of New World hantaviruses at the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense.