Two students in Penn State’s Nuclear Engineering Program in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering won prestigious nationwide fellowships awarded by the US Department of Energy to students pursuing graduate degrees in nuclear engineering.  Andy Bielen won a Nuclear Engineering/Health Physics (NEHP) Fellowship, and Jeff Lane won a Naval Nuclear Propulsion (NNP) Fellowship.  Each Fellowship provides four years of support towards the MS and PhD degrees at the school of the winner’s choice.  Bielen and Lane elected to pursue their graduate studies in Penn State’s Nuclear Engineering Program.

Andy Bielen earned simultaneous Bachelor degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics from Penn State, University Park, in May 2006.  He was a Schreyer Honor Scholar, and was selected Student Marshal for his class.  Among several honors and scholarships, Mr. Bielen won a $10,000 Astronaut Scholarship in 2005.  He is active in the local section of the American Nuclear Society, serving as its Vice President last year.  He participated in research projects for two summer sessions as a summer student intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory.  His research interests span topics in the field of nuclear engineering with a strong mathematics content.

Jeff Lane earned concurrent Bachelor degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering from Penn State, University Park in December 2004.  He was a Schreyer Honor Scholar earning honors in Mechanical Engineering.  Jeff then earned a Master’s of Science Degree in Nuclear Engineering, also from Penn State, University Park, in August 2006.  Jeff has been an active member of the local section of the American Nuclear Society and was selected as the recipient of the Pittsburgh ANS Local Section Graduate Scholarship for the past two years (2005-2006 and 2006-2007).  In addition, he has held internships during the past two summers at the Bechtel Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory.  His research interests are focused on thermal-hydraulics and safety analysis, primarily in the area of two-phase flow.  His doctoral research will be focused on the development of an improved Dispersed Flow Film Boiling (DFFB) model for safety analysis codes.