OAK RIDGE, Tenn., May 7, 2018 – Oak Ridge High School senior Jan Jakowski has been named recipient of the 2018 UT-Battelle Scholarship to attend the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. (UTK).
The competitive scholarship is awarded annually to a graduating senior planning to study science, mathematics or engineering at UTK and who has a parent employed by UT-Battelle, managing contractor of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The scholarship is renewable for up to four years and is worth a total of $20,000.
Jakowski is the son of Jacek and Anna Jakowski of Oak Ridge. Jan’s father, Jacek, works in ORNL's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division.
Jakowski's accolades as a student at ORHS include top scorer in his team's National Physics Bowl Competition, AP Scholar with Distinction and qualifier in the Tennessee Math Teachers Association annual math contest. He was also a precalculus and calculus and advanced topics qualifier. His activities include Youth Advisory Board, International Relations Club and the Spanish Honors Society. He also participated on ORHS's track and field and cross country teams.
Working with retired ORNL mathematician Leonard Gray, Jakowski has investigated a fluid dynamics challenge, for which he received the Naval Science Award from the Office of Naval Research at the Southern Appalachian Science and Engineering Fair. He has also prepared a research paper on the project. Gray wrote in his letter of recommendation that the work could lead to the elimination of a "difficult and computationally expensive step" in solving nonlinear fluid models for viscous liquids such a blood and petroleum.
Jakowski's scientific interests occupy a broad range. Beyond his fluid dynamics interests, he created a video on machine learning and self-driving cars. He is described in his several letters of recommendation as "globally aware" (he was an exchange program student in Japan) and "a brilliant mathematical mind" who "enjoys the rigor of academic expectations."
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://energy.gov/science/.
