Science and Engineering Fellowships

Two graduating seniors taking $100K-plus fellowships to MIT

Among other research projects, Palmer traveled to Armenia, where he had previously served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to research economic benefits of higher education there. Funding for the field study and preparatory research came from a grant from BYU’s Office of Research and Creative Activities.

After returning, he continued his research and made it the focus of his honors senior thesis. “My research work is so indicative of the complete BYU experience,” Palmer said. “It ties together my mission, interacting with international governmental representatives on campus, mentoring from the economics faculty, and help from the Honors Department to get my applications together for funding.”
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Across campus in a laboratory in the engineering building, Landon’s undergraduate experience involved considerable hands-on work studying how to make materials stronger and last longer. He eventually was the lead author on a paper published in an academic journal and a co-author on several others. In addition to the NSF Fellowship, Landon won the prestigious National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, which is worth approximately $200,000 (although he’s only allowed to use one at a time).
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Three recent BYU graduates were also named 2008 NSF Fellows and are already in graduate school:

Marian Adamson is studying bioengineering at the University of Michigan. Brigham Frandsen will welcome Palmer into the economics program at MIT. Adam Washburn is studying analytical chemistry at the University of Illinois.

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Heather Beem, mechanical engineering major, Oklahoma State University. Beem and Larry Hoberock, professor and head of OSU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, are pictured with a silverware sorting prototype she helped design and build in the school’s Robotics Laboratory. OSU engineering student receives $232,000 fellowship

She will enroll at MIT in the fall, after traveling to China this summer to see Olympic venues, Three Gorges Dam and other modern marvels as part of a study abroad short-course for OSU engineering students, and serving a summer research internship at NASA Ames Academy in California.

“Oklahoma State University is extremely proud of Heather,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “The best representation of the ideals of OSU is our outstanding students, and Heather is a remarkable example.
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“My dad is an aquatic biologist, and when I was growing up, he’d take me tromping through the streams of Oklahoma to take measurements and look at fish,” Beem said. “I’ve had an interest in that for a while now, and the ocean is a huge frontier with lots of things to discover.”

Beem, who graduated from Norman North High School in 2003 at age 15, discovered engineering through an Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education summer academy. “I really enjoyed learning how to tackle interesting problems in my high school physics class,” Beem said. “I also liked building things, and then I participated in one of those free summer academies after my senior year.”
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During a tour of the National Taipei University of Technology, Beem, who is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and German, met and convinced researchers to hire her for an internship. “I was originally just going to visit, but they were working on a bioengineering application using the antibacterial properties of silver in wound dressings, and I thought it was really interesting,” Beem said.

“They want to use nano-silver particles and, instead of a bandage you have to replace all the time, make a dressing that releases silver at a controlled rate,” she said. “It’s cleaner and much more effective than a bandage you have to constantly rip out and replace.” The work led to the first of several technical papers on which Beem has been principal author or co-author.
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In addition to serving as structures group leader for the OSU team that won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Student Design/Build/Fly Competition in April, Beem was a member of a student group that designed and built a prototype, inflatable wing aircraft for NASA exploration of Mars. She considers the experiences her most memorable as an OSU engineering student.

“Being involved with Dr. (Jamey) Jacob’s Mars plane team, seeing the project all the way from concept to completion, and test launching it from a weather balloon 100,000 feet in the air was really exciting. At that point, I thought, ‘I’m really going to enjoy working with technology like this,’” Beem said. “The Design/Build/Fly was also a great experience, and winning first place made us all feel great.”

Related: Oklahoma State Biosystems Engineering Student Wins NSF GRF - Arizona State Students Receive NSF Fellowship

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Awards Still Pouring In For CU-Boulder Graduating Physics Student Ben Safdi

Safdi, who will graduate in May with dual degrees from CU-Boulder in engineering physics and applied mathematics, will study for a Certificate of Advanced Study in Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Churchill College at Cambridge. Safdi will work with several high-profile faculty members there, including world-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, as well as department chair Brian Greene, one of the founders of “string theory.”

In early April, Safdi also was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which provides up to $121,000 for up to three years of funding for master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and math fields. Safdi plans to undertake his NSF fellowship at Princeton University after he returns from Cambridge in fall 2009.

In the past year, Safdi also has been the recipient of a $7,500 Goldwater Scholarship and a $10,000 Astronaut Foundation Scholarship — the latter presented to him last November by NASA Mercury astronaut and CU-Boulder alumnus Scott Carpenter. He also received the CU-Boulder Provost’s Award for Academic Achievement in 2005 and has won or placed in several regional and national math competitions.

podcast with Ben Safdi

Related: American Radio Relay League Scholarship Recipient Wins Research Fellowship - NSF Graduate Research Fellow Profile and Nobel Laurette - Burton Richter - Gustavus Alumna Receives Prestigious Fellowship

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University at Buffalo students earn top national awards

Last year, UB students or recent graduates garnered a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Defense and seven Fulbright fellowships, in addition to the Udall scholarship. This year, in addition to Krolikowski, UB’s other national award winners are Bradley Cheetham, UB’s third Goldwater Scholar in four years; Kelly Miller and Stacy Pustulka, who won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships; and Dale Hess, a geology student who won a Fulbright Fellowship.
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Last year’s Udall winner from UB, Kelly Miller, continues to receive accolades, this time as a winner of a 2008 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship… Miller, a senior environmental engineering student, has been engaged since her freshman year in research and activism regarding world-wide water quality issues. She has worked to perfect a low-cost sand filter that would make cleaner drinking water in Third World countries and has given presentations for the World Water Forum. After graduation, Miller plans to work for six months with Greenpeace’s Project Hot Seat Campaign as a field organizer and will enroll in the master’s program in engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in fall 2009.

Stacy Pustulka, who graduated from UB in December 2007 with a B.S. in chemical engineering and a minor in biotechnology, is UB’s other NSF fellow… As an undergraduate, Pustulka performed research in the areas of tissue engineering and metabolic engineering. She received a Dean’s Fellowship and a James C. Meade Graduate Fellowship from Carnegie Mellon University, where she will begin her Ph.D. studies in chemical engineering this fall, focusing on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Recent UB graduates who join Miller and Pustulka as NSF Graduate Research Fellows are Christine Balonek, ’07, who is studying chemical engineering at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and Nicholas Polanto, ’00, who is studying ecology at Penn State. Balonek received honorable mention in the fellowship competition last year as a UB undergraduate.

Related: Science and Engineering Fellowship and Scholarship Directory

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Ekaterina Hristova Spriggs, computer science graduate from University of Arizona awarded NSF GRF:

Spriggs, who has spent the year since her graduation conducting research at the UA, will leave for Carnegie Mellon University this fall to complete her doctoral degree in computer science… Her research involves creating computer models to identify fungi. She is working on the project with Kobus Barnard, an assistant professor of computer science, and plant pathology associate professor Barry Pryor, who is also a member of the BIO5 Institute.
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Spriggs is also organizing a summer camp for middle school students focused on integrating science and computation. The camp, which will be offered for students at the UA-affiliated Wildcat School, will be held in June. “Improving science and education is my ultimate goal, and I hope that during my graduate studies I will gain the experience and expertise to achieve this goal,” Spriggs said.
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The award will allow Spriggs to begin her graduate research this fall, focusing on understanding ways that computers and humans can interact in a learning environment. Her goal is to create human-computer processes that keep students engaged in learning, identify areas in which they need tutoring and keep them excited about science and math.
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Using Wiki software, Spriggs developed the Web site “All for Education.” With help from the UA’s College of Science and College of Education, among others, she filled the site with easy-to-access information to inform families of college-bound youth about scholarships, internships and summer programs. The site also has instructional materials for teachers and volunteers.

Related: Ekaterina Spriggs Develops Education Website - Arizona State Students Receive NSF Fellowship - Carnegie Mellon Engineering Students Win NDSEG Fellowships

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ISU poli-sci major receives prestigious NSF fellowship

Petra Hendrickson, Indiana State University senior majoring in political science:

she felt disbelief and shock, but also performed a happy dance when she found out that she was selected to receive the fellowship, which will pay $10,500 a year for three years of tuition costs and $30,000 a year for three years to allow her to pursue independent research.
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“I had stopped checking the Web site,” she said. “I thought ‘I’m not going to get this.’ Then a friend posted on my Facebook wall congratulations.” Nine political science students were selected for the fellowship, and Hendrickson said she saw her name and Indiana State next to students from University of California at Berkeley, Yale and the College of William and Mary.

Michael Chambers, political science department chair, was one of the professors who encouraged Hendrickson to apply for the fellowship. “This is the first time that an ISU political science student has ever been awarded such a prestigious and competitive fellowship for graduate study,” he said. “This award is a testament to her academic efforts over the past four years.”

Those efforts have included research into ethnic conflict and genocide and presentations of her findings at undergraduate research conferences and political science associations’ regional conferences.
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Hendrickson, who chose to attend ISU after participating in the university’s Summer Honors program for talented high school students, said originally she wanted to be a diplomat, so she decided to study political science. That plan changed slightly soon after she began studying at ISU. “One of the professors took me under her wing,” she said. “Then graduate school is all that I could imagine doing.”
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In the political science department, Hendrickson said she received research opportunities from professors through encouragement to work as a research assistant and to take part in the National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates. “I had eight weeks to develop my own research project and conduct it from start to finish,” she said. She presented her research into “U.S. Rhetorical Response to Genocide in the Media” at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
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After she presented those findings at the Midwest Political Science Association’s annual conference, she submitted her research to Pi Sigma Alpha, where it was selected as a national runner-up for best undergraduate class paper. Hendrickson plans to begin work on her doctoral degree in political science at Michigan State University in the fall, with an ultimate goal of becoming a political science professor. On her way to that, she hopes to do field research into the ethnic conflicts and genocide.

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5 Carnegie Mellon seniors (Mariela Zeledón, Geeta Shroff, Henry Deyoung, Melissa Bartel, and Arbob Ahmad) received graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Zeledón’s [photo on left] research deals with the PBN1 gene found in budding yeast. Yeast cells cannot survive without this gene, but scientists’ knowledge of the gene’s function does not explain this necessity. Zeledón’s research focuses on figuring out a second function of the gene that is necessary for the survival of the cell.

Zeledón plans to continue her research in the field of genetics, her current focus being human genetics. She is particularly interested in psychiatric genetics, which she will be studying at Johns Hopkins University, where she has been admitted into the Ph.D. program.
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Shroff [photo on right] found her passion in developing technology for diabetics and the disabled, and is currently working on two projects based on this idea. The first consists of developing a device that will help diabetics monitor their diets, while the second aims to help the blind with their transportation needs. Shroff said that she wants to study how technology can be used positively in developing countries like India and Africa.
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Jeremy Freeman, neuroscience major, and Lydia Thé, biology major, Awarded NSF Fellowships:

Freeman is an honors special major in neuroscience, combining neurobiology, cognitive psychology, mathematical statistics, and independent neuroscience research in his studies. He studies motion perception with Swarthmore Professor of psychology, Frank Durgin. Freeman has also done extensive research at the N.Y.U. Center for Neural Science with Professors Denis Pelli and David Heeger. His research has focused on understanding how objects are represented in the brain. Most recently, Freeman has used fMRI to measure interactions between different brain regions during object recognition, and to show how these interactions encode object information. Last year, Freeman received a Goldwater Scholarship. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Neural Science at New York University this fall.

Thé started doing science research in high school at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine through a New York Academy of Sciences program. As a biology major at Swarthmore, she has worked with Professor Elizabeth Vallen, studying the role of the myosin protein in yeast cell division. She has also studied germline development in the worm, C. elegans, with Geraldine Seydoux at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She presented her findings at the 2007 International C. elegans Meeting in Los Angeles. This fall, she will join the Molecular and Cell Biology Graduate Program at the University of California at Berkeley.

Related: UAB Students Win NSF Research Fellowships - Nine Dartmouth alumni given NSF Graduate Fellowships

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University of Nebraska at Omaha Student Receives National Research Award
Adam S. Smith, psychobiology graduate student

The focus of Smith’s research is on the neurobiology of social behavior. He works with marmoset monkeys, squirrel-sized primates from Brazil. These monkeys are monogamous, and form long-term “pair-bonds” between adult males and females.

Smith is evaluating the role of the neurohormone oxytocin in regulating the establishment and maintenance of social pair bonds in marmosets. Smith’s research is conducted in UNO’s Callitrichid Research Center, a facility dedicated to the noninvasive study of marmoset and tamarin monkey breeding and social behavior.

Related: Univ of Virginia Graduate Students Earn NSF Fellowships - The NSF Graduate Fellowships Class of 1952

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Five graduates earn research fellowships from National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Graduate Research Fellowships to five recent graduates of Middlebury College: Lydia Beaudrot ’05, Anna Blasiak ’07, Brooke Gardner ’06, Laura Helft ’06, and Tyler Williams ’06.
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Lydia BeaudrotLydia Beaudrot, from Atlanta, will begin pursuing a Ph.D. in ecology at the University of California-Davis in the fall. At UC-Davis she will join the Graduate Group on Ecology to study primate behavior and ecology with biological anthropologist Andrew Marshall. She plans on working in Gunung Palung National Park in Indonesia for her dissertation work, which will likely be on the ranging behavior of gibbons or orangutans.

After graduating cum laude from Middlebury with a joint degree in environmental studies and sociology/anthropology, Beaudrot spent a year in Costa Rica studying capuchin monkeys. In 2006 she began working at Harvard University as a research assistant in primatology where she performed spatial analyses of orangutan movement patterns using the geographical information systems (GIS) skills she acquired at Middlebury.
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Anna Blasiak, from North Potomac, Md., is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in computer science at Cornell University where her principal interests lie in graph algorithms and their practical applications, such as networks and computer vision.

At Middlebury Blasiak majored in computer science and mathematics, graduated summa cum laude, earned both departments’ highest honors, and achieved an appointment to Phi Beta Kappa. As a senior Blasiak was on the three-member computer-programming team that finished first among 37 colleges in the annual competition conducted by the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges, Northeast Region. In addition, she won the Dr. Francis D. Parker ’39 Mathematics Prize and the Hazeltine-Klevenow Memorial Trophy for excellence in academics and athletics.
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Brooke Gardner, from Moss Beach, Calif., is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in the Tetrad program of the biochemistry department at the University of California-San Francisco. She is studying the activation of the unfolded protein response in S. cerevisiae, the organism commonly known as budding yeast, in Professor Peter Walter’s laboratory.
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