Mark Berrill Awarded Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship
 |
One of 19 honored nationwide, electrical and chemical engineering Ph.D student Mark Berrill was recently awarded the 2006 Krell Institute Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. The Krell Institute, dedicated to applying innovation to current scientific and engineering challenges, is developing a multi-disciplinary workforce of computational scientists through educational outreach, exchange and fellowship programs.
Created in the 1990's by the Department of Energy (DOE), this highly competitive fellowship has become a means to attract and train advanced computational scientists for academia, industry and government laboratories. Funded by the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration, the fellowship requires graduate work in each, a scientific or engineering discipline, computer science and applied mathematics. Their mission to produce computational scientist who are comfortable working in a variety of disciplines serves to create a community of interdisciplinary leaders ready to address urgent needs in energy applications.
"In addition to financial support, the fellowship provides for a wide variety of connections with other fellows, and research labs through the annual conference and the practicum," said Berrill. Each year, fellows meet in Washington D.C. for three days to present their own research and gain insight into that of others in their field. In addition, each student must take part in a 12-week research experience at a DOE laboratory outside of his/her thesis dissertation area. Currently Berrill is conducting research at Los Alamos National Laboratory located in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
" The practicum is an opportunity to work within a national lab; this helps to broaden the experiences of the fellowship, as well as provide connections that can help to further my own research ," remarked Berrill. " I hope to gain the necessary tools and knowledge so when I graduate I can join a national lab and make a positive contribution to the research community."
Working under University Distinguished Professor Jorge Rocca, Berrill's research focuses on the development of computer models to better understand plasmas used in generating short wavelength lasers, part of the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology at Colorado State University (EUV ERC). With substantial average powers and high peak brightness, short wavelength lasers will serve to decrease the size of computer processors, inversely increasing their speed, as well as lead to a variety of applications in photophysics and photochemistry. They may even potentially revolutionize microscope technology.
In addition to his fellowship, Berrill is the recipient of an International Society for Optical Engineering Scholarship (SPIE), the Claude W. Wood Scholarship, the ECE Merit Scholarship, and the Harold and Sylvia Joy Scholarship. He serves as member of the EUV ERC Leadership Council, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), SPIE, and Sigma Xi.
For more information on the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology at Colorado State please visit the website at http://euverc.colostate.edu/.
To view Mark Berrill's video please visit http://www.engr.colostate.edu/comm/media/videos/stream.cfm?id=117&q=h.