(MAHWAH, NJ) -- Ramapo College student Prithivi Rana ’23, an engineering physics major in the School of Theoretical and Applied Science, has been selected to be a participant in the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies’ (PSEG ISS) Green Teams program. The program, now in its seventh year, is held each summer with students in various disciplines from colleges and universities across the country. This year’s program is being held on the campus of Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, N.J.

According to Ramapo Associate Professor and Convener of Engineering Physics Catalin Martin, the Montclair State University Green Teams Internship is a competitive summer program, which is sponsored primarily by PSEG and the National Science Foundation. Students are first pre-selected based on their curriculum (academic grades, skills and experience), faculty recommendations and a personal essay. Then they go through an individual interview with a committee, which makes the final selection.

Said Martin, “Prithivi is a rising senior in the Engineering Physics program and one of the strongest students we had in the past five or six years. Besides maintaining a challenging course-load, Prithivi spends many hours in the Low Temperature-Infrared Laboratory, doing research on optical properties of novel electronic materials. He’s an excellent student.”

Martin added, that along with three other students from the group, this spring Prithivi presented an oral research contribution at the American Physical Society – March Meeting 2022, a flagship international conference on solid state physics, held in Chicago this year.

This year’s 50 students in the PSEG ISS program are divided into 10 teams and paired with host organizations to survey, research, analyze – and ultimately report on – sustainability projects for partner organizations, including Weeks Marine, Inc., NJ Transit, PSEG, the Trust for Public Land, and the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation.

Prithivi will join four students on the Weeks Marine, Inc. team, which will produce a comprehensive database of the company’s generators and determine its “carbon footprint before preparing a strategy to reduce emissions and the costs and benefits associated with making any necessary changes,” according to the program’s post.

PSEG ISS supports research and community projects, including climate change in New Jersey, and energy and water studies globally. In its seven years of operation, the PSEG ISS Green Teams Internship Program has had 320 undergraduate students from 68 different colleges and universities participate in the program.