Name: Jane Cloninger; Institution: University of Texas at Austin; Program: Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF); Education Level: Undergraduate Student
March 29, 2023
minute read time
Jane Cloninger is a Senior majoring in Chemical Engineering, Sustainability Studies, and Geography at the University of Texas at Austin. While also seeking a minor in Humanitarian Engineering, she has explored humanitarian engineering and environmental advocacy through interning with the Colorado River Alliance, researching vegetation in the Kalahari, Botswana, and managing the construction of a disaster relief shelter in Tamil Nadu, India.
Her Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) research project titled Resource Map for Modular Co-Gasification of Coal Waste, Biomass and Other Waste Materials developed an interactive, user-friendly resource map of waste coal and biomass resources in the U.S., and to recommend potential sites and scales for modular co-gasification plants. This project used public geospatial data to map coal and biomass resources.
I think this internship opened me up to the possibility of working in the federal government or National Lab system in the future.
“I had a really good experience with all of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) staff I met. My mentor Mark Smith (Morgantown) was especially awesome. I felt like I had an appropriate amount of work and a lot of autonomy. The speaker series were great to continually check in and have structured content mid-week. I got a lot out of the entire program. I loved doing the research itself and presenting my research at the end. I had daily communication with my mentor for at least the first 5 weeks, and it was really beneficial because I got to know him, heard interesting stories about DOE and grad school, and learned a lot of background info about the research that his group handles.
"My research was truly interesting and personally fulfilling to me, and I had a lot of autonomy over what I wanted to study. I developed a great relationship with my mentor, and I will definitely be asking for some grad school recommendation letters from him in the future! I might even return to NETL to perform research during grad school. This program was a really great experience. I think this internship opened me up to the possibility of working in the federal government or National Lab system in the future.”