News Archive

Written by Kelli Trotter, Clemson University
Edited by Dawn Montgomery, PhD, Clemson University, HPS Student Support Committee

Kelli Trotter, MS student at Clemson University
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The Student Support Committee is proud to showcase another outstanding health physics graduate student, Kelli Trotter, who is working to complete her MS in environmental health physics at Clemson University. We hope you enjoy learning a bit about her background, internship experiences, and current master's research!

Kelli is working under Nicole Martinez, PhD, CHP. She came to Clemson to study environmental engineering and found out about the nuclear engineering and radiological sciences minor during her sophomore year through speaking with Dr. Martinez. During the spring semester of her junior year, she began preparing to enroll in graduate school as part of the five-year bachelor's to master's program in environmental health physics. Kelli is in the preliminary stages of her master's thesis but is currently collecting initial readings of radon levels around Clemson's campus using the Radon Eye, a simple radon detector that can be plugged into an outlet and paired with a smartphone to read the measurements. Her thesis objectives include comparing building ages with radon levels in the lower levels of the buildings, comparing various radon-detecting equipment, and possibly mapping out the correlating readings with the ages of the buildings using GIS.

Kelli's experience as an environmental engineer includes a summer internship through the Department of Energy's (DOE) scholars' program with the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). She was placed with the Infrastructure and Area Completion Division (IACD) at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina. During her time with IACD, she was able to learn about the process of remediating and monitoring hazardous waste found on SRS land due to past oversight of the dangers of the material. Kelli's mentors allowed her to go on tours with representatives from the US Environmental Protection Agency, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, and DOE. Kelli learned firsthand how regulators and on-site program managers efficiently discussed risk assessments, possible challenges with decommissioning, and steps for moving forward. Her interest in risk communication, engineering ethics, and promoting mentorships was commended several times by her mentors. She hopes that her interactions with SRS and the DOE were not limited to just one summer since she loved seeing the engineering solutions being implemented at SRS and the multitude of projects that DOE had a hand in.

Kelli currently expects to graduate in August 2022 and is on the lookout for jobs in the public sector with specific interest in living around Washington, DC.