Science and Engineering Scholarships and Fellowships Blog

A very interesting article by William Blanpied explores the history of The National Science Foundation Class of 1952

A theme evident in a large number of responses had to do with the significance of the NSF fellowship in permitting recipients to concentrate on study and research by freeing them from teaching or research assistantship obligations. Several respondents also noted that their fellowships allowed them to change their research directions. Burton Richter, Director Emeritus of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and a Nobel Laureate in Physics, recalled that as a student at MIT, he was working, “on an experiment [at the National Magnet Laboratory] to determine the hyperfine structure of the radioactive mercury isotopes. My job was to make the radioactive mercury isotopes, which I did by a kind of inverse alchemy turning gold into mercury using the MIT cyclotron.

I began to find myself more interested in what was going on at the cyclotron laboratory than in what was going on with my experiment. As my interest grew, I decided that perhaps I should change fields. I went off to spend three months at Brookhaven seeing what particle physics was like. I found I loved it and on return transferred to the synchrotron laboratory and began working in the direction that I have pursued ever since.”

“It may be that I could have done all of this with a normal graduate research assistantship but it would certainly have been more difficult. I would have had to find a professor who was willing to spend his own research money to give a young student an opportunity to try out some different area.”

Engineering student wins NSF grad research fellowship:

Ackerman said she found the research process to be extremely rewarding. “I was treated with respect as a contributor to the research, and I loved the experience of learning through seeing, touching and feeling,” she said. “Dr. Allen gave me the opportunity to gain experience and publish my work. I wouldn’t be where I am without him.”
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The six papers on which Ackerman is a co-author certainly played a role in her winning the NSF fellowship. But the reviewers of her application also gave her high marks for her technical understanding, leadership qualities and participation in outreach activities. One wrote, “This candidate has much to offer the profession.”

Allen agrees. “I hope she’ll become a university professor,” he said. “But regardless of her ultimate career path, she’ll make major contributions to the environmental engineering field.”

Computer Science Alumnus Thomas Siebel Makes $100 Million Gift to University of Illinois:

Exactly how the $100 million will be used has not been determined yet. But the fund, called the Thomas M. Siebel Fund for Excellence in Science and Engineering, will focus on research on issues such as alternative energy, bioengineering and stem cell research. Money will go to graduate fellowships, endowed and chaired professorships, symposia and collaborative projects between the UI and other universities, businesses or government agencies. The money could also go toward a new building to house all these new programs.
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His company, Siebel Systems, donated $2.6 million in 2000 for the Siebel Scholars Fellowship Program in the Department of Computer Science.
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Siebel joined Oracle in 1984 as a systems engineer. Eventually he went into sales and by 1989 he was general manager of the company’s direct marketing. In 1990 he left Oracle for the software company Gain Technology and in 1993 he started he own company, Siebel Systems. In the fall of 2005, Oracle announced it would purchase Siebel Systems for $5.85 billion.

That last paragraph highlights the notion that I have mentioned on my personal blog - engineering education does not necessarily mean an entire career as an engineer. More CEO’s of S&P 500 companies majored in engineering than majored in any other field.

A great research paper is available from the Brookings Institution - Investing in the Best and Brightest: Increased Fellowship Support for American Scientists and Engineers by Richard B. Freeman. He provides interesting data and makes some policy recommendations:

Stipulate that the United States wants to increase the flow of citizens choosing scientific and engineering careers. An appropriate policy to do this is to increase the number and value of fellowships for graduate work. I propose that the NSF triple the number of graduate research fellowships (GRFs) for science and engineering work and increase the value of those awards relative to earnings elsewhere in the economy.

The paper is well worth reading in my opinion for those interested in this topic (which is pretty much anyone reading this blog I would think). This chart was included, it shows the number of female awardees by gross field over time (over 50% of awards are to women now):
Read the rest of this entry »

Duke Engineer Named to 2007-2008 Class of White House Fellows

The White House today announced the appointment of 15 outstanding individuals from across the country to serve as White House Fellows, including 1996 graduate in electrical engineering, Kristine Singley, of Celebration, Florida. The 2007-2008 Class of White House Fellows represents a diverse cross-section of professions including medicine, law, finance, media, engineering, education and state government.
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Singley, 32, is presently a Program Engineer with Walt Disney World Design and Engineering, responsible for portfolio management of global and local engineering efforts. Previously as a Sr. Project Engineer, Advanced Technology, at Walt Disney World, she supported a generation of new guest experiences using innovative technology applications. In 2005, Kristine relocated to Hong Kong as Engineering Services Manager for Hong Kong Disneyland’s Opening Team Task Force, affording her continual opportunities to expand her cultural, leadership, and technical knowledge. A passionate speaker, Singley developed a health and wellness group and provides ongoing leadership to a heritage speaker series within the engineering organization. She currently facilitates leadership development classes at the Disney University.

ChemE Grad Receives Graduate Research Fellowship:

“I am so thankful to all of my professors, friends and family who gave me encouragement during the application process,” Mills said. “I spent about a month piecing together my application and it was those people who kept me in good enough spirits to get it done.”

This summer, Mills will be working for OpX, a start-up biotech company in Colorado that she also worked for last summer. She will start her Ph.D. this fall at University of Colorado at Boulder, in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Eventually, she plans to become a college or university professor.

“By providing full funding, this award will provide me the flexibility to tailor my Ph.D. project,” Mills said. “I can pursue a project that is a little more unconventional and risky than others because the funding is already provided. It is very encouraging to know that NSF trusts me enough to determine what my project should be.”

In her time at WVU, Mills has been highly involved as a member of many student organizations, including Society of Women Engineers (SWE), American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Omega Chi Epsilon and Kappa Phi. She is the former president of SWE, and completed many service outreach activities with the organization. Her participation was vital to Girl Scout Day and Eighth Grade Day, both campus visitation days designed to get young people interested in engineering.

Mills has a specific desire to introduce females to engineering, and hopes to be a SWE advisor one day.

ECE Students Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Kasick’s research is focused on the challenges of fingerpointing the root cause of failures in large, complex distributed systems. “This is an increasingly important research area, particularly for developing highly available computer systems, because diagnosing the root cause of failures and initiating appropriate recovery actions are critical to keeping systems up and running 24/7,” said his advisor, Priya Narasimhan, Associate Professor of ECE.

ECE senior Felix Duvallet and alumnus Daniel Weller (B.S. 2006) also won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year. Weller is now a graduate student in electrical engineering at MIT, where he will use his fellowship. Duvallet plans to apply his award toward graduate study at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. Senior Veronica Yusz, who received an honorable mention, will continue as a graduate student in ECE next fall working on magnetic materials research with Jimmy Zhu, ABB Professor of ECE, who directs Carnegie Mellon’s Data Storage Systems Center (DSSC).

Women Recipients of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship at Virginia Tech:

1966 Laraine M. Unbehaun, Ph.D., Plant Pathology, 1969 - In 1966 Unbehaun became the first female graduate student at Virginia Tech to be awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship… That same year she accepted a professorship in biology and microbiology at the University of Wisconsin, where she worked for 30 years. Unbehaun coordinated the NSF-sponsored “Women and Science Program” at the UW-LaCrosse campus from 1986 to 1999.
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1992 Susan Cox-Stouffer Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, 1997 - While a senior aerospace engineering student at Virginia Tech, Cox was one of 20 students nationwide chosen by USA Today for the 1992 All-USA Academic First Team. The key element considered was outstanding original academic or intellectual production by the student. She was also a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship and worked at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility as a co-op student for several years before graduation.
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2004 Juliette Mammei - Juliette, along with her husband Russell, were the only two nuclear physics students selected for NSF Graduate Research Fellowships in 2003. They are working on a new model of elementary particle physics.

Approximately 300 Goldwater Scholarships for undergraduate students in science and math are awarded each year.

For 2007, 28 mathematics majors, 223 science and related majors, 54 are engineering majors, and 12 are computer science majors received awards (many of the Scholars have dual majors in a variety of mathematics, science, engineering, and computer disciplines). The one and two year scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by Public Law 99-661 on November 14, 1986. The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry M. Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Applications will be available starting in September for next year. Schools nominate up to 4 students for the scholarship, see the web site for details on the application process.

A new government funded program to help students pay for science and engineering education, Get SMART:

The Pentagon’s new and generous scholarship program aims to bolster the number of top students who are earning degrees in so-called STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering and mathematics—and acquiring skills it considers key to the nation’s future security. Called the Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship program, the Pentagon wants to ensure there’s a pool of talented researchers available to U.S. defense labs so they can continue their critical work for decades to come. That’s why for every year they receive the scholarship, Lopez and her fellow SMART recipients have agreed to work an equal amount of time at a government defense lab upon graduation.
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[SMART] scholars spend summers working as interns at [Department of Defense] labs. Each is assigned a mentor, one of the lab’s senior researchers, to help guide them through their studies and their lab work. Their lab assignments are tailored as much as possible to coincide with their current coursework. Lopez’s mentor, for instance, is Richard A. Albanese, the lead scientist in the Information Operations and Special Projects Division at the Air Force Research Laboratory located at Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. His applied mathematics team specializes in signal processing and advanced electronic systems with special interest in antenna synthesis.