North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Selected for DOE’s RENEW Initiative

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Aug. 23, 2023) ÔÇô In a significant achievement, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) has been chosen as one of the universities to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) initiative.

The RENEW initiative aims to distribute $70 million in federal funding to colleges and universities across the nation, providing support for student research and workforce training, as announced by Congresswoman Kathy Manning. Her North Carolina district includes the N.C. A&T campus.

Advancing Research in Atmospheric Science and Meteorology

Under the RENEW initiative, Ademe Mekonnen, Ph.D., a professor of physics in N.C. A&T’s College of Science and Technology (CoST), serves as the principal investigator (PI) for the project titled “Sub-seasonal to Interannual Variability and Predictability of Rainfall over East Africa.” This project is one of the funded endeavors and aims to strengthen the atmospheric science and meteorology program at N.C. A&T by providing experiential training and student mentorship. Collaboratively conducted with co-PIs from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, this project involves extensive research in the field.

In addition, Bishnu P. Bastakoti, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemistry in CoST, collaborates as a co-PI for another funded project named “Structure Property Relationships in Two-Dimensional MXenes,” led by Fayetteville State University, in association with the Savannah River National Laboratory.

Empowering Education and Research Programs

With the newly acquired funding from the DOE, CoST Dean Abdellah Ahmidouch, Ph.D., expresses excitement about the potential to strengthen education and research programs in atmospheric science and meteorology. Notably, these efforts will facilitate the attraction of more minority students to this field and provide them with state-of-the-art computational technique training. Additionally, students will actively engage in pioneering research efforts in climate science.

This funding initiative aims to promote research by historically underrepresented communities, contributing to the diversification of leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Congresswoman Kathy Manning emphasizes the importance of investing in diverse university research, emphasizing its pivotal role in advancing the country’s global leadership in science, research, and technology. N.C. A&T’s involvement in the RENEW program showcases its status as a national research institution. As a proud advocate for STEM research and historically Black colleges and universities, Manning celebrates N.C. A&T’s ongoing achievements in the field of STEM research.

For more information about the funded projects, please visit https://science.osti.gov/Initiatives/RENEW.

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