FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 23, 2020
Waste Management Symposia Announces Historically Black Colleges and Universities Scholarship Funding
Mesa, AZ: As part of its continuing effort to help the Department of Energy and the nuclear industry develop the workforce of the future, Waste Management Symposia (WMS) is putting an increased emphasis on funding scholarships at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and at institutions near DOE sites.
WMS annually convenes the Waste Management Conference in Phoenix, which last year attracted more than 2,300 attendees from 35 countries to participate in the world’s largest conference on radioactive waste management and disposal, decommissioning, packaging and transportation, facility siting and site remediation.
Beginning this year, WMS, through its charitable arm the Roy G. Post Foundation, will dedicate the majority of its scholarship funding to students at colleges and universities near DOE sites, with an initial focus on Hanford in Washington State, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and the Idaho site. Additionally, WMS will seek to broaden opportunities in the nuclear industry for students at HBCUs through a long-term commitment to funding scholarships at South Carolina State University, the only HBCU in the country with an undergraduate nuclear engineering program.
“Funding graduate and undergraduate scholarships for students pursuing careers in the nuclear industry is one of the most powerful ways we can help develop the leaders of tomorrow,” Post Foundation Board of Trustees President Robert Berry said.
WMS and the Post Foundation have provided more than $4 million in scholarships and educational assistance to graduate and undergraduate students.
“Now more than ever, it’s important to provide a strong linkage between our scholarship giving and the vital work being undertaken at DOE sites across the complex,” Waste Management Symposia Board Chairman Jim Gallagher said. “Likewise, our long-term commitment to fund scholarships at South Carolina State University is important step forward to support students from HBCUs in pursuing nuclear careers.”
Roy G. Post, a professor at the University of Arizona, was the founding chief executive of WM Symposia. The Roy G. Post Foundation is a non-profit organization formed by his students, peers and protégés to provide scholarships to students to develop careers in the safe management of nuclear materials and to participate in the WM Conference.
Since its inception, the Post Foundation has awarded scholarships to more than 150 undergraduate and graduate students from all around the world. For more information on the Post Foundation scholarships and the Waste Management Conference, visit www.wmsym.org.