Natasha E. Hjerrild, a member of Bainbridge High’s Class of 2008, was awarded a doctorate’s degree in photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia on Aug. 3, 2018.

Prior to this she had earned a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering (Cornell, 2012) and a master’s degree in materials (St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, 2013).

Hjerrild is grateful for the excellent K-12 preparation she received from the teachers and staff at Bainbridge public schools, and for support from the Bainbridge community at large. This included a generous academic scholarship from Bainbridge Rotary in 2008 — at the time, the largest such scholarship they had awarded.

She intends now to put her knowledge to work in the solar-energy field, having accepted a process-engineer position at SunPower of San Jose, California.