A&M-Commerce receives user grant for ORNL
Texas A&M University-Commerce recently received approval for a user grant at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
“Grants like this add to the reputation of A&M-Commerce in mentoring, training and producing excellent students who will excel after finishing their degree here,” said Regents Professor of Chemistry Dr. Ben Jang. “It also helps recruit better students in the future because of our nurturing reputation.”
Located in eastern Tennessee, ORNL is the largest U.S. Department of Energy science and energy laboratory. They conduct basic and applied research on site to develop solutions to problems in energy and security. ORNL supports the DOE's mission to further scientific discovery, clean energy and security. More than 4,000 people are on staff at the lab, including scientists and engineers in over 100 disciplines. The facility also welcomes more than 3,000 users and visiting scientists annually.
For A&M-Commerce students, this means that they will have the opportunity to visit the facility, learn from the researchers and conduct research of their own. The university plans to send one group of students to visit ORNL four times in the next year. Each trip will last a week, and the first trip will take place during spring break 2015. In the lab, students will use state-of-the-art tools and work side-by-side with internationally renowned scientists.
“This experience will help our students not only gain unique scientific knowledge due to the use of special equipment, but it will also boost their confidence in competing at the national or international level because they will have seen the best,” said Jang.
The grant was approved for A&M-Commerce to begin using ORNL facilities in February, and it is good until January 2016. The project is sponsored by the College of Science and Engineering as well as the Department of Chemistry. Both entities are providing partial travel funding to support the students.
To learn more about the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, visit www.ornl.gov.