Nelson E. Lourenco has been awarded the 2015 NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) Fellowship. Co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and foreign counterpart science and technology agencies, this international research program provides U.S. graduate students with a unique opportunity to perform Ph.D. level research overseas, develop collaborative international relationships, and strengthen societal familiarity through language and cultural immersion.

Lourenco is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he is advised by John D. Cressler, the Schlumberger Chair Professor in Electronics.

Lourenco’s fellowship proposal, “Modeling of Radiation Effects for Advanced Silicon-Based Electronic Systems within Extreme Environments,” will investigate the effects of semiconductor technology scaling on the radiation tolerance of silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe HBT) platforms. In addition, he will assist in the development of a calibrated, optical dosimetry system, providing new measurement and verification capabilities for material science and radiation effects research.

Co-sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, this research will be conducted in collaboration with Kazuyuki Hirose and Daisuke Kobayashi at the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, a division of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Sagamihara, Japan.