Dr. Bagayoko receives major funding from Dept. of Energy

Dr. Bagayoko receives major grant funding from Dept. of Energy

BATON ROUGE, La. - Dr. Diola Bagayoko, the Southern University System Distinguished Professor of Physics, has received a three-year, $503,931 federal research grant to help develop new methods and processes in the field of materials and energy science.

The grant is from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration. The newly funded project is a major component of the Consortium for Materials and Energies Studies (CMaES) led by Florida A&M University.

The first year funding for Southern University at Baton Rouge is $153,931 and the funding for each of the following two years is $175,000 for a total of $503,931.

CMaES is a collaborative effort among seven Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and two national laboratories of the DOE.  Some of the other key objectives include the production of new knowledge, and the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers in areas of interest to DOE.

Besides SUBR and FAMU, other collaborating organizations include: Prairie View A&M University, Tuskegee University, Tennessee State University, Benedict College, Morehouse College, Allen University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Tommy Rockward, who received his Bachelor of Science and master's degrees in Physics from SUBR, is the lead scientist for the collaboration at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

CMaES will focus on student research internships, pre-college STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) initiatives, research collaborations among HBCU partners and national laboratories, and inter-HBCU research collaborations. 

Through its research efforts, CMaES seeks to support the goals of the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

For more details on this project, please contact Dr. Diola Bagayoko at (225) 771-2730.

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