Partnering to Improve Diversity in the Fusion Workforce: year one of three

Attracting a broad array of talent is essential to growing the fusion energy workforce and succeeding in overcoming the scientific and technical challenges of rapidly developing fusion energy. We have completed the first year of our three-year project utilizing the FES-RENEW program. Four high quality candidates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have completed ten-week summer-internships in the Fusion Energy Division (FED) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Recruiting activity included ORNL staff visits to each participating HBCU to deliver introductory lectures during the academic year. A 1-week intensive course at the nearby University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) on plasma science and fusion technologies initiated the summer internship. In this way, the ultimate objective of this program is to establish a sustained "pipeline" of undergraduate students from the participating HBCUs (currently underrepresented in fusion science), through graduate opportunities (e.g. at UTK and ORNL), to careers in fusion. In this presentation, we present successes to date in the program as well as challenges and opportunities in the future to improve the experiences of our student participants to help accomplish the stated goal of FES-RENEW "to increase participation of underrepresented groups in FES's fusion and plasma science and technology research portfolio."