Thirty new Ph.D. students will apply high-performance computing to innovative research in fields from quantum computing and AI to energy science.
National Nuclear Security Administration
May 13, 2025
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WASHINGTON – Thirty students on the path to achieving doctorates in fields that emphasize the use of computing and mathematics have been selected for the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program.
The 2025-2026 incoming fellows will attend 21 U.S. universities as they learn to apply high-performance computing (HPC) to research in disciplines including machine learning, quantum computing, chemistry, astrophysics, computational biology, energy, engineering and applied mathematics. New-class members earned undergraduate degrees from 28 institutions, several of which are new to the DOE CSGF.
The program, established in 1991 and funded by the DOE’s Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), trains top leaders in computational science. As of Sept. 1, the DOE CSGF community will include more than 700 fellows and alumni who represent a total of 86 Ph.D. institutions. More than 500 program alumni work in an expanding number of fields that support computing's capacity to maintain the nation’s advantage in energy science and other urgent scientific and technological challenges.
"We are so pleased to congratulate the 30 new fellows," said Dr. Ceren Susut, Associate Director of Science for DOE's Advanced Scientific Computing Research program. "Each of these incredibly talented people has demonstrated both outstanding academic achievement and tremendous research potential. Their research topics cover some of the highest priorities of the Department of Energy, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and science and engineering for energy and nuclear security. Over the last 34 years, CSGF has produced a disproportionate share of high-performance-computing leaders in industry, the national laboratories, and academia, and the Department is proud to continue its support for this critical program."
“High-performance computing is a key element of NNSA’s mission to ensure the safety and security of the nation’s nuclear deterrent,” added Dr. Stephen Rinehart, Assistant Deputy Administrator for the NNSA Office of Advanced Simulation and Computing and Institutional Research and Development Programs. “The CSGF program is a valuable workforce development of future DOE laboratory scientists who will apply HPC simulations to solve complex problems in science and engineering, including in areas of import to the NNSA. We look forward to seeing what this year’s fellows will do and the impacts they will have on the DOE missions.”
The DOE CSGF’s interdisciplinary science and engineering track supports students in a range of fields, but all share a common element: applying HPC to research problems. A second track supports those studying applied mathematics, statistics, computer science or computer engineering – in one of those departments or their academic equivalent − with research interests that advance HPC use in science. This includes students focused on HPC as a broad enabling technology rather than a particular science or engineering application. Regardless of track affiliation, fellows’ research increasingly includes elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning, positioning them to contribute to the United States’ investments in emerging computing architectures.
Fellows receive support that includes a stipend, tuition, and fees, and an annual academic allowance. Renewable for up to four years, the fellowship is guided by a comprehensive program of study that requires focused coursework in science and engineering, computer science, applied mathematics and HPC. It also includes a three-month practicum at one of 22 DOE-approved sites across the country, and an annual meeting where fellows present their research in poster and talk formats.
Members of the DOE CSGF’s 35th cohort, their institutions (UG = undergrad) and research focus are:
| Eliza Asani University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Physical Chemistry UG: University of Alabama, Huntsville | Timothy Baer Stanford University Applied Mathematics UG: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Evan Bell Johns Hopkins University Machine Learning and Computational Imaging UG: Michigan State University |
| Alli Brophy University of Tennessee, Knoxville Computational and Applied Mathematics UG: Winthrop University | Pascal Caraccioli Salinas Cornell University Geological Sciences UG: Portland State University | Lily Chen Stanford University Machine Learning UG: Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Noah Conner University of Michigan Applied Mathematics UG: University of Utah | Gage Erwin University of Wisconsin-Madison Quantum Information Physics UG: University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Nicole Flors Northwestern University Astronomy UG: Boston University |
| Emily Foley University of Arizona Applied Mathematics UG: Wake Forest University | Skylar Gering Massachusetts Institute of Technology Applied Ocean Science and Engineering UG: Harvey Mudd College | Julia Gersey University of Michigan Computer Engineering UG: Baldwin Wallace University |
| Stephen Huan Carnegie Mellon University Machine Learning UG: Georgia Institute of Technology | Laura Lewis University of California, Berkeley Quantum Information UG: California Institute of Technology | Stefanie Moncayo University of California, Berkeley Microbiology UG: Dominican University New York |
| Miles Moore University of Colorado Boulder Ecology UG: University of Colorado Boulder | Jack Morgenstein Princeton University Chemistry UG: Duke University | Zachary Morrell University of Chicago Quantum Computing UG: University of New Mexico |
| Hrishikesh Ram University of California, Berkeley Chemical Engineering UG: North Carolina State University | Levi Raskin University of California, Berkeley Computational Biology UG: Haverford College | Giovanni Rivera University of California, Riverside Computer Science UG: California State University, Dominguez Hills |
| Emmanuel Sanchez University of Texas at Austin Mechanical Engineering UG: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | Cheyanne Shariat California Institute of Technology Astrophysics UG: University of California, Los Angeles | Cooper Simpson University of Washington Applied Mathematics UG: University of Colorado Boulder |
| Troy Smith University of Georgia Physical Chemistry UG: State University of New York, College at Brockport | Isabella Stewart Massachusetts Institute of Technology Materials and Mechanics UG: Wellesley College | Jamar Sullivan University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Computational Science and Engineering UG: University of Chicago |
| Janet Teng Stanford University Chemical Engineering UG: Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Aidan Wilber-Gauthier Yale University Physics - Quantum Information Science UG: University of Michigan | Michelle Winham-Gee Stanford University Fluids and Computational Engineering UG: Oregon State University-Cascades |