Former Talkeetna student receives prestigious graduate fellowship

Talkeetna resident, Henrique Miller has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation – Graduate Fellowship Program Award. 

The NSF-GRFP is the country’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in science and technology fields.

Since the award was created in 1952, forty-two fellows have gone on to become Nobel laureates.

The fellowship will pay Henrique’s tuition and a stipend for three years of graduate study.  KTNA’s Colleen Love spoke with Henrique, and his Mother, Dora, about his early years at Talkeetna Elementary School and Henrique’s plans for the future.

Henrique Miller attended Talkeetna Elementary School until fifth grade.  He often worked ahead in math and seemed distracted from the rest of the class.  His fourth grade teacher, Jeannie Ickes, took notice, and gave him a geometry book, something she thought would channel Henrique’s enthusiasm. 

“She just gave that to me to study on my own, and that really got me into math and the visualization of math and that kind of thing.  I’m a very visual person when it comes to mathematics, extremely visual, and I think that was kind of a formative moment for me.”

But Jeanne Ickes wasn’t the only elementary school teacher to take an interest in Henrique.  

“Probably the most formative, around the same level as Mrs. Ickes help, was Karen Mannix.  She really, really helped me.  She always pushed us into many different fields, not just math, and that really helped round me out.  Because I have a lot of passions.  I’m not just a math and physics guy.”

Henrique’s mother, Dora, decided to place him in homeschool for fifth grade, through the Interior Distance Education of Alaska program, most commonly known as I.D.E.A.  Dora credits local resident, Becky Moren, who then worked for I.D.E.A., with helping them with the transition.

“Becky was the first person that explained to me how education in the US worked.  Because coming form Brazil, my education in Brazil was completely different.  Becky sat with me, day after day, and explained to me everything.  And she was always pushing him forward.”

Henrique had already earned forty-two college credits by the time he began his studies, as a freshman, at the University of Alaska.  He will graduate in May with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Math.  He spoke with me about his upcoming graduate studies.

“I applied to four schools and I was accepted to MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering program, and three programs at University of Wisconsin Madison.  I picked out those universities and those programs because of their involvement in fusion and in plasma physics.”

When asked what fusion research was all about, this is what Henrique had to say.

“So most people with be familiar with nuclear reactors which is not fusion. That is fission.  So nuclear reactors break down large atoms like Unranium or Plutonium into smaller things, at that releases energy through atomic reactions.  And it’s kind of dangerous, as we know.  Now in the case of a fusion reactor, which has not been produced yet, because there’s some very difficult physics and engineering issues, if one were to function, it would take small atoms like Hydrogen and Helium and combine them.  The byproducts in this case are not nearly as dangerous, oftentimes not even radioactive.  The reason I went with Wisconsin was because they have existing devices that I can work on, particularly a stellarator known as HSX – Helically Symmetric Experiment.  At MIT, at this moment, there is a very exciting device they’re building, which might lead us to actual fusion, but it will take at least five years to make, and I’m more interested in working on an existing device, then help build one and then have to leave, after my doctorate is over.”

Dora says she will miss Henrique when he moves across the country, to begin his next chapter, but she is also enthusiastic and excited for the opportunities that await.

“I never raised Henrique to be forever in Talkeetna and to be here by my side.  No, I raised him for the world.  Seeing him going out there, it’s going to hurt me as a Mom, because you know it’s good to have kids around, but it’s so good to see him going out there.  He has a huge future ahead.  He might create the way that we’re going to power our life.”