(Golden, CO, April 4, 2025) Colorado School of Mines’ Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships is pleased to announce that Kaylyn Buchanan, a first-year PhD student in Mechanical Engineering, has been selected as a 2025 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship awardee.
According to Kaylyn, “Ever since I was in third grade, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer. More specifically, I’ve always wanted to work with energy conversion systems for power generation and propulsion applications. With the help of this NDSEG Fellowship, I will be able to continue my academic career through research by working to understand the fundamental physics of combustion systems through high-speed optical and laser diagnostics — especially in high-speed propulsion systems. This will enable the design of more efficient systems, which is a critical step toward ensuring U.S. dominance in energy resilience and energy security while maintaining combat superiority.”
According to her advisor, Dr. Rajavasanth, Principal Investigator of the Advanced Propulsion and Diagnostics Lab at Colorado School of Mines, “As a first step in her research journey as a DoD-NDSEG Fellow, Kaylyn will be spending her summer splitting time between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, collaborating with leading researchers and experts in the field.”
Read full Mines Newsroom story here.
The Department of Defense (DoD)’s National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship provides full tuition, monthly stipend, travel budget, and health insurance funding for three years to propel talented individuals towards groundbreaking discoveries and innovations relevant to DoD interests. Established in 1989, the NDSEG Fellowship Program aims to increase the number of U.S. citizens trained in science and engineering disciplines vital to national security. Our objective through the NDSEG Fellowship and its mentorship program initiatives is to Propel these talented individuals to the forefront of many discoveries and innovations relevant to the DoD; Promote the growth of scientists/engineers within relevant DoD research disciplines; and support DoD science, engineering, and technology Innovations Now and in the Future. With over 4,700 fellowships awarded since inception, this program continues to support the growth of scientists and engineers within relevant research disciplines. The application period for the FY2026 NDSEG Fellowship opens on 1 August 2025 and closes on 1 November 2025.
For more information about applying for the NDSEG Fellowship or other national and international scholarships, please contact ashley.weibel@mines.edu.