ASU doctoral student earns Idaho National Lab Graduate Fellowship

Tanner Yorgason, a doctoral student studying materials science and engineering, has won an Idaho National Laboratory Graduate Fellowship, a two-year program that supports students completing their dissertation research.

Yorgason completed an internship with INL in 2018 at the lab facility while working toward a master’s degree and found the experience to be a gateway into the fellowship program.

“Getting this fellowship made me want to work harder because I know a lot is going to be expected of me as I go through the program,” Yorgason says. “But it’s also really exciting that plans are coming together that I’ve been working toward for a long time. 

Yorgason’s focus during his fellowship will be on nuclear energy.

“One of my goals has been to work in nuclear energy,” he says. “As far as I’ve understood, learning about all the different energy resources and how well we track them, it has one of the greatest potentials to be the best clean, renewable source of energy.”

For the duration of his fellowship, Yorgason will be working with both his ASU advisor, Assistant Professor Chris Muhich, and his mentor at INL.

“I want to work to find some kind of source of energy that is not only renewable, but also sustainable and inexpensive,” Yorgason says. “If energy costs go down, everyone’s standard of living should increase. I think this fellowship is really going to help me work in a field I’ve always wanted to work in.”