August 20, 2024
By Mikey Fuller

Two students from the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering have been named 2024-2025 American Nuclear Society (ANS) Scholarship recipients.

Matthew Louis, a nuclear and radiological engineering major, and Kenneth Thompson III, a mechanical engineering and mathematics major, are among 91 students receiving ANS Scholarships in 2024.

Celebrating its 70^th Anniversary, the ANS is an organization for those that embrace the nuclear sciences and technologies for their vital contributions to improving people’s lives and preserving the planet.

Louis is receiving the ANS Rudi Stamm’ler Reactor Physics Division Scholarship for the second year in a row. As a rising senior, Louis’ study interests involve reactor multiphysics modeling, design, and high-performance computing.

He is currently involved in a project focused on simulating higher enriched fuel cycles for light water reactors under Associate Professor Dan Kotlyar. Louis is also president of the Georgia Tech Hapkido Club.

Louis says he is grateful for the additional support to his academic career and honored to have been chosen and recognized among the many candidates for his efforts for a second time. "I'm honored to have been awarded this scholarship again, and I am glad to see that my hard work is paying off."

The Rudi Stamm'ler Reactor Physics Division Scholarship was established in 2014 by the Reactor Physics Division to recognize promising students at the junior/senior level with an interest in the field of reactor physics.

Thompson, from Las Vegas, Nev., is receiving an ANS Scholarship for Undergraduates.

Thompson works in the Shock Tube and Advanced Mixing Laboratory, directed by Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair and Professor Devesh Ranjan, for magnetohydrodynamic simulations hoping to help develop stable nuclear fusion. He also works with Assistant Professor Suhas Jain on writing code for magnetohydrodynamic simulations.

“This scholarship will allow me to focus more on these research projects and my Ph.D. applications in chaotic dynamics and plasma physics,” Thompson says.

ANS scholarships are awarded to members that have personified the high standards set by the Society, and since 1979, more than $7 million in scholarships have been distributed. Evaluation is based upon numerous factors, such as academic excellence, leadership within the ANS, references, career goals, and financial need.