LSU Physics PhD Candidate Presented Prominent DoD SMART Scholarship

LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy graduate student Bradley Munson has been awarded a U.S. Department of Defense’s Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation—Scholarship-for-Service, SMART, Scholarship.

DoD’s SMART Program is an opportunity for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in STEM disciplines to receive a full scholarship and guaranteed civilian employment with the DoD upon degree completion.

“My sponsoring facility is the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) in New Mexico, which is part of a larger group called The Research and Analysis Center (TRAC),” said Munson. “My work will primarily be analyzing output from a combat simulation software called COMBATXXI.”

White Sands Missile Range, DoD’s largest, fully instrumented, open air range, provides America’s Armed Forces, allies, partners and defense technology innovators with the world’s premier research, test, evaluation (RDT&E), experimentation, and training facilities to ensure our nation’s defense readiness.

Munson will receive full tuition, a monthly stipend, and a ten-week summer internship.

While pursuing his PhD at LSU, Munson works with Dr. Manos Chatzopoulos in the computational astrophysics research group. “In my research at LSU I build software tools to analyze output from complicated simulations,” said Munson.

“I am very excited for this opportunity and relieved by the fact that I now have a guaranteed job following graduation,” said Munson. “I highly encourage other students to apply for this opportunity in the following years. Many facilities use the SMART application as a portal to make individual offers for summer internships. It's a good and efficient way to get your name on a lot of people's desks and you never know what opportunities may arise!”

Munson earned his B.S, in physics from North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, in 2017.

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Learn more about the SMART Scholarship Program. which was established as a concentrated effort to enhance the DoD’s workforce with “talented, innovative, and brilliant scientists, engineers, and researchers.”

 

Contact
Mimi LaValle
LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy
225-439-5633
mlavall@lsu.edu