Science and Engineering Scholarships and Fellowships Blog

The National Science Foundation has awarded scientists at Colorado State University a $2.7 million grant. This grant is meant to assist graduate students in their research to “test new theories about how cells behave using advanced engineering methods in microelectronics and electrochemistry.” The project will be lead by Tom Chen and Stuart Tobet.

As part of the grant, graduate students at Colorado State University will share their knowledge with K-12 teachers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields (STEM). Michael A. De Miranda, professor in the College of Applied Human Sciences and co-principal investigator for the grant, has been assigned the task of training these STEM K-12 teachers.

“The grant is intended to take that impact beyond higher education classrooms into the community to be shared with K-12 teachers and industry leaders,” explains De Miranda. “We are using this money to train graduate students to not only conduct the research but obtain transferable skills such as leadership, ethics and communication.”

By encouraging the graduate students at Colorado State to work with K-12 teachers on this grant, it will improve the communication between different people within the science community and increase the number of students entering into STEM related fields in the future.

The International Desalination Association (IDA) recently announced its 2009 Fellowship winners, Hiroshi Iwahori and Kourosh Mohammadi. Iwahori and Mohammadi will spend 6 to 8 weeks in Saudi Arabia working with the Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC).

Hiroshi Iwahori is currently a Senior Consultant in the Membrane Division of Nitto Denko Corporation in Japan. Iwahori has spent over 35 years researching membrane separation technology in both the United States and Japan. For the past 16 years, Iwahori has presented technical papers on RO and UF membrane separation at every IDA World Congress.

Kourosh Mohammadi is a Associate Professor at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, Iran. He also is the Head of the Department of Environmental Engineering at the Water Engineering Research Institute. Mohammadi is currently a member of the IDA, the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Sciences Research, the International Association of Hydrogeologists, the Iranian Water Resources Association and the Iranian Hydraulic Association.

Iwahori and Mohammadi received the fellowship based on the specific selection criteria by the IDA. This included “professional achievements, relevant experience in the field of desalination and water reuse, and the potential to make a significant contribution to desalination and water reuse in particular, and to the field of water and waste water in general.”

Siemens PLM Software has recently donated $150 million in grants to Howard University in Washington, D.C. The goal of the grants is to strengthen the university’s engineering department by providing “engineering software and student and instructor training and specialized certification programs.” The donation by Siemens is the largest amount Howard University has ever received and will benefit both PLM engineers and technologists.

Sarah Khasawinah, a recent graduate from Bryn Mawr College, has been awarded the 2009 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Khasawinah completed both a A.B. and a M.A. from Bryn Mawr.

Khasawinah has also participated in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program and founded The Solidarity Project. The Solidarity Project was founded to create a $10,000 scholarship fund at Virginia Tech in memory of each of the 32 victims from the shootings in 2007.

Khasawinah will use her award to pursue her graduate studies at John Hopkins University in biostatistics.