Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (CSGF)

The Department of Energy's Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program was developed to meet the Nation's growing need for science and technology professionals with advanced computer skills. As this need continues to rise into the 21st century, the DOE CSGF program has become even more important. The current potential shortage of skilled technology professionals could have severe consequences for the future. The shortage of computational scientists at Department of Energy laboratories is particularly notable. Approximately 30% of DOE CSGF alums work or have worked in DOE laboratories. In 2024, 40 DOE CSGF  fellows were accepted into the program. More than 675 students representing 85 U.S. universities have been welcomed into the DOE CSGF since its inception. The program's alumni work in DOE laboratories, private industry, academia and beyond.

When created in the early 1990s, the Department of Energy's Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) was a bold experiment - a unique multi-disciplinary program focused on nurturing leading computational scientists. A decade later it's clear the fellowship was, and is, a visionary program - pivotal strategic investment in attracting and training our nation's foremost computational scientists.

The DOE Office of Science initiated the fellowship because of the critical importance of computational science to DOE's core missions, and a profound recognition of our nation's growing and continuing need for broadly trained advanced computational scientists in academia, industry and government laboratories.

The fellowship - now jointly funded by the DOE's Office of Science and the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration - requires that graduate students plan and follow a course of study focused on the challenges and opportunities of high performance computing (HPC). The CSGF's interdisciplinary science and engineering track supports students in a range of fields, but all share a common element: applying HPC to complex research problems. A second track supports those studying applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, computer engineering or computational science – in one of those departments or their academic equivalent − with research interests that help scientists use emerging high-performance systems more effectively. This includes students focused on issues in HPC as a broad enabling technology rather than a particular science or engineering application. Regardless of track affiliation, fellows’ research increasingly includes elements of artificial intelligence and machine learning – uniquely positioning them to contribute to the United States’ investments in current and future computing architectures.

Fellows also participate in a 12-week research experience at a DOE laboratory. In keeping with the DOE CSGF's interdisciplinary emphasis, this practicum must be in an area of research outside of the student's thesis dissertation. Laboratory supervisors are nearly unanimous in their enthusiasm for the high level of talent and skill that fellows bring to their practica and the quality of their work. DOE CSGF alumni and the current fellows form a core group of computational science leaders that joins industry, academia and DOE, and other government laboratories in a range of more than 30 critical disciplines from bioinformatics to nuclear engineering and astrophysics.

These alumni are bringing their diverse, top-level skills and knowledge to research teams at DOE laboratories, including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

For more on the program, visit www.krellinst.org/csgf