COLUMBUS, OHIO - The Department of Energy (DOE) today awarded a $375,000 grant to two universities in Ohio to establish a collaborative nuclear engineering program. 

The partnership between Wilberforce University, a historically black university in Wilberforce, Ohio, and Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, one of the Nation’s premier engineering universities, has been selected through a competitive award process to provide new educational opportunities for undergraduate engineering and science students at Wilberforce University. 

The DOE grant, awarded over three years, will allow Wilberforce University to establish an undergraduate minor in nuclear engineering and several outstanding Wilberforce students will enroll in the master’s and doctoral program in nuclear engineering at Ohio State University. Under this program, students will learn about the technical and scientific issues associated with nuclear science and engineering and gain the opportunity to enter one of the highest-paying technical careers in the United States.

“This partnership will provide students at Wilberforce the opportunity to learn about an area of science and technology that is essential to our energy future, the environment, medicine, national security, and even space exploration,” Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham said. “Nuclear technology has been too often the province of large, rich institutions. This initiative will assure that students at smaller schools — particularly minority students who are under-represented in nuclear engineering — have a chance to participate in one of the most challenging and exciting of all technical disciplines. Important initiatives like this would not be possible without the help we have received from Congressman Dave Hobson. He first brought Wilberforce’s capabilities to our attention last year and we appreciate his strong support for our education programs.”

Mr. Hobson is Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, which funds most of the operations of the Department of Energy, the civil operations of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation, which is administered through the U.S. Department of the Interior.

This new partnership will involve a significant effort on the part of the faculty members and administrators from both institutions. The program will involve the establishment of a new set of core courses to support the Wilberforce minor degree program, and a distance education initiative. The program will emphasize both nuclear engineering and health physics. The students entering this program will have greater access to Department of Energy national laboratories, research programs, and educational assets.

This is the fifth partnership that DOE has helped to establish under the nuclear engineering education program. Under the DOE nuclear energy University Partnership Program, over 50 students at minority-serving institutions have entered studies in nuclear science and technology.

Additional information on the department’s science education initiative is available at www.energy.gov.  Information on other DOE nuclear science and engineering educational initiatives that are sponsored by the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology is available at www.nuclear.gov.

Media contacts:
Hope Williams, 202/586-5806
Joe Davis, 202/586-4940

- DOE -

Release No. R-04-354