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U.S. Department of Energy

SunShot Initiative Fellowships

SunShot fellowships provide an opportunity for scientists, engineers, and researchers to lead and improve projects to meet the goals of the SunShot Initiative.

Photo of six men and women standing in front of a space exhibit.

SunShot fellows in front of the Apollo Lunar Module at the National Air and Space Museum. Image from DOE

There are three types of fellowships for recent graduates and experienced scientists and engineers.

All fellows are assigned to policy-related projects and mentored by senior EERE staff. The fellowships are administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) in collaboration with EERE. ORISE is responsible for the implementation of the fellowship program, processing applications, the review and notification processes, and management of payments to fellows.

AAAS Fellows

AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships are awarded to elligible M.S. or Ph.D. graduates who have more than three years of post-degree experience in a technical or research capacity at the time of application.

  • Katherine Crowley is an AAAS Fellow working to quantify the risks associated with financing solar projects. Her goal is reduce barriers to large-scale deployment of solar technologies by determining appropriate financing for these technologies. Katherine spent nine years teaching mathematics at Washington and Lee University, St. Olaf College, and Columbia University, and served as a legislative aide to Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn) for one year.

  • Leonard Tinker is supporting the drafting, technical evaluation, and execution of several Solar Program awards. He is also developing an online collaborative space for grant recipients that will both accelerate the diffusion of information and support DOE's ability to track progress. He has a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Princeton University, a B.S. from Beloit College, and has just returned from Münster, Germany where he concluded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship that focused on organic LEDs.

SunShot Fellows

SunShot Fellows are Ph.D. graduates who have held a graduate degree for less than three years at the time of application.

  • Carmen Cioc is pursuing a professional in photovoltaics M.S. degree at the University of Toledo (UT), Ohio. At UT, she has performed PV-related research in the ultrafast spectroscopy laboratory, which is part of the department of physics and astronomy. Carmen earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering for her research work in mathematical/numerical modeling of thin film fluid flows and elastohydrodynamic lubrication of high-speed rotorcraft transmission components.

  • Adam Cohen is investigating technology market dynamics. He researches how information and innovations diffuse through a population and how individual decision-making is coupled with group decision patterns. Adam earned a Ph.D. in physics from University of Maryland studying synchronization of networks of chaotic oscillators.

SunShot Junior Fellows

Junior Fellows are recent bachelors graduates who have held a degree for less than five years at the time of application.

  • Doug Fabini is a SunShot Junior Fellow focusing on systems integration. His past energy work includes mitigating the effects partial shading and panel degradation in PV plant-level electrical design, evaluating the performance of vibrational energy harvesters for wireless sensor networks, and power systems modeling and design for airborne wind turbines. Doug joined the SunShot program in January, and holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley.

  • Alex Polizzotti is a SunShot Junior Fellow focusing on two long-term projects. One is a report on PV recycling, a fast-approaching yet under-investigated problem in America. The other is a paper on Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)—an analogue to the CIGS layer in thin-film solar cells—that explores whether this material can be used non-disruptively in CIGS architecture. Alex joined the SunShot program in July, shortly after receiving an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Pomona College.

A variety of internships, fellowships, and scholarships, including postdoctoral research positions, are available through EERE.