Beginning this year, WM Symposia, 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 the Hanford Site in Washington State, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee, and the Idaho Site.
In addition, WM Symposia said that it 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.
Quote: “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,” said WM Symposia board chairman Jim Gallagher. “Likewise, our long-term commitment to fund scholarships at South Carolina State University is an important step forward to support students from HBCUs in pursuing nuclear careers.”
Background: The late Roy G. Post, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Arizona, was the founding chief executive of WM Symposia. The Roy G. Post Foundation is a nonprofit 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 Waste Management Conference, the world’s largest conference on radioactive waste management and disposal, decommissioning, packaging and transportation, facility siting, and site remediation.
WM Symposia and the Post Foundation have provided more than $4 million in scholarships and educational assistance to graduate and undergraduate students.
Waste Management Symposia, which hosts the Waste Management Conference every year in Phoenix, Ariz., announced on October 23 that it is putting an increased emphasis on funding scholarships at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and at institutions near Department of Energy sites. The organization said that the funding is part of its continuing effort to help the DOE and the nuclear industry develop the workforce of the future.
