Keaton Coletti, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of Georgia, has been named a Truman Postdoctoral Fellow at Sandia National Laboratories.
The Truman Postdoctoral Fellowship is a highly competitive, three-year appointment designed to attract exceptional early career scientists and engineers to pursue independent research that directly supports Sandia’s national security mission. The appointment provides fellows with access to world-class facilities and mentorship from senior technical staff.
“I’m very excited to be a Truman Postdoctoral Fellow at Sandia,” Coletti said. “I’ve interned at Sandia for several years now, and I think that it’s an outstanding place to work. In addition to having my research funded, I’ll be working with some of the best minds in engineering and applied math. I’m eager to see what we can accomplish.”
Coletti is one of two doctoral students nationally to receive this prestigious fellowship. This is the first time the fellowship has been awarded to a University of Georgia student.
“I have worked with Keaton since his first year as an undergraduate, and across thousands of interactions, he has never failed to impress me,” said Ben Davis, Coletti’s doctoral advisor and associate professor of mechanical engineering. “He combines deep mathematical rigor with practical engineering intuition in a way that is genuinely rare. This fellowship is a well-deserved recognition of both his exceptional talent and his sustained dedication. It has been a joy to mentor him, and I could not be more pleased to see his work recognized at the national level.”
Coletti’s research focuses on inverse problems, uncertainty quantification and optimization with applications in vibrations and acoustics. He has already produced a strong record of peer-reviewed publications in this area.
“The Truman Fellowship is an extraordinary honor, and I’m thrilled to see one of our very best students recognized for his talent and dedication,” said Alex Orso, UGA College of Engineering dean. “I look forward to watching all that Keaton will accomplish next.”
Coletti received bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering and mathematics from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. He was a Foundation Fellow in the Jere W. Morehead Honors College.
“Keaton’s selection as a Truman Fellow is a testament to the world-class academics at the University of Georgia,” said Benjamin C. Ayers, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “By bridging the gap between mechanical engineering and complex mathematics, he embodies the kind of innovative, interdisciplinary thinking we strive to cultivate in our students. We are incredibly proud of his success and wish him well as he begins his fellowship at Sandia.”