Alert: The contest has ended and winners have been announced. Read "Celebrating Excellence: Eight UH Students Named UH-Chevron Graduate Energy Fellows" to view the winners.

The University of Houston (UH) Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows Award seeks outstanding graduate candidates at the University of Houston (UH) engaged in graduate education and research in energy topics from across the campus. The program will fund 8 (eight) fellows with a one-year $12,000 graduate fellowship in addition to any other remuneration students might be receiving. Students must have a minimum of 12 months before completion of their degree program, with preference for student who have longer horizons before completion of their degree program. Students enrolled for less than six months in their graduate program (as of June 14th) are not eligible to apply.

Timelines

• Call for Applications: June 14th, 2023.
• Applications due: July 14th, 2023, 5 PM Central.
  • Applicants should fill out the attached coversheet, include a research statement (not to exceed 2 pages, single-spaced, 1-inch margin, 11-point font), a two-page CV, an unofficial copy of the UH transcript, and a letter of recommendation from a UH Faculty mentor.
  • Applications (research statement and CV) should be submitted by email to ramanan@uh.edu as a single PDF file with the email subject line identifying the full name of the candidate and the name of the program (UH Chevron Energy Graduate Fellows Award)
  • Recommendation letters should be submitted by email to ramanan@uh.edu with the subject line identifying the candidate’s full name.
• Selections announced: 31st July 2023, 5 PM Central.
• Eight (8) $12,000 Awards will be granted in academic year 2023-2024 (Aug 2023 to July 2024) as an additional fellowship award.

Applicant Eligibility

• Graduate students from any School or College at UH with a focus on energy study and/or research.
• Students must have been enrolled for longer than six months in their graduate program as of 14th June 2023.
• Students must have a minimum of 12 months of coursework and/or research remaining prior to completion of their degree program.
• Students must be in good academic standing in their graduate program.

Topics

Competitive applicants may be carrying out research in any topic related to energy, but priority will be given to students whose work focuses on scalable innovation for transformational policy, regulation, design and operation of current energy systems and their evolution in the near and long term:

• Transforming the traditional oil & gas business of today with improved safety, reliability, efficiency, digital transformation, and lower carbon footprint (for the various asset classes such as deepwater, shale & tight, heavy oil, and complex facilities of the future)
• Building the lower-carbon businesses of tomorrow particularly in the areas of carbon capture and utilization (through thermo-/electro-/bio- catalytic pathways), H2 value chain, next-generation renewable fuels including sustainable aviation fuels, and qualification/quantification of carbon intensity and carbon offsets.
• Engaging in policy and technology for emerging energy systems including novel geothermal solutions, energy storage systems, mobility systems, modular nuclear reactors, fusion, etc.

Selection Process

Award recipients will be selected by a committee that will evaluate candidates based on the strength of the research statement, applicant CV and recommendation letter. The committee of UH Faculty, Staff, industry (including Chevron) experts and other qualified experts will evaluate the candidates. The selection process may require a short oral interview with a select group of semi-finalists during the week of July 24th (to be conducted online).

Terms of the Award

The awards will be administered as one-year fellowship award to the selected students, contingent on maintaining good academic standing. The fellows will be expected to engage at least quarterly with Chevron subject matter experts >and participate in educational and research engagements organized by UH Energy through the year. Fellows must submit a one-page progress report on a quarterly basis. Interested fellows will be encouraged to participate in the development of energy-related blogs and thought-leadership based opinions. Students are expected to be making satisfactory academic progress and to be enrolled full-time during the fall/spring semesters.

The program will have a kickoff reception during the week of Aug 14th 2023 and a year-end presentation in July 2024.

Contact

For additional information, please contact Ramanan Krishnamoorti. (ramanan@uh.edu)