Michigan Tech students and faculty are highlighted in this issue of the Master’s International newsletter from the US Peace Corps. Open the issue to find out more about Blair Orr, Jon Mellor, Amber Kenny, and Jason Rhoades.
The Graduate School needs your help in welcoming our new graduate students and helping them successfully begin their career at Michigan Tech. Faculty, staff and student volunteers are needed to facilitate discussion during orientation. This is your opportunity to help enhance graduate education at Michigan Tech.
The training will help graduate students and advisors set expectations for graduate education and introduce students to basic concepts in responsible conduct for research. The program centers around an interest based approach that has been developed by Michigan State for use in their graduate programs.
Volunteers will help facilitate discussion at a table with six or seven new graduate students. The discussion will center around two vignettes that depict typical graduate student and faculty interactions. Volunteers will participate in one of the training sessions offered on Monday, August 24th from 1:00 – 3:00pm and Tuesday, August 25th from 10am – noon.
Orientation begins at 9am on Wednesday, August 26th.
If you would like to volunteer, please register at:
http://www.gradschool2.mtu.edu/registration/events/
After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with the locations for the training and orientation, along with reminders as we get closer to the event.
Please contact Debra Charlesworth with any questions about orientation.
This seminar along with handouts is now available online. Look in the Archives for the July 7, 2009 seminar. It will be online for approximately one year.
Join the Graduate School to learn the basics of Adobe Acrobat. Michigan Tech has a site license for this software, and all theses and dissertations are required to be submitted using this file format. We’ll talk about how to generate a pdf, how to edit a pdf file, how to embed fonts, and all about hyperlinks and bookmarks.
Please register for the event at our online registration site:
http://www.gradschool2.mtu.edu/registration/events/
Once you register, you will receive a confirmation with the location and a reminder of the date and time. Space is limited, so register early! The seminar will be taped and available online for those unable to join us at this time.
Michigan Tech looks forward to welcoming our new graduate students from summer and fall semester. All new degree seeking students will be invited to orientation on August 26th beginning at 9am in the Memorial Union Ballroom. Registration and light snacks will be available beginning at 8:30am. Lunch is included in the program, and will be followed by a round table session designed to introduce students to the services available on campus. Online registration is now closed. Students may register onsite, and will be accommodated as space permits.
In addition to the orientation session sponsored by the Graduate School, students may also be required to attend sessions sponsored by:
- their graduate program (contact programs for details)
- the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development
- International Programs and Services
Questions about Graduate School orientation may be directed to Debra Charlesworth or Carol Wingerson.
Published in Tech Today
submitted by Denise Heikinen, Sustainable Futures Institute
The Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI) is sponsoring a poster session on Monday, June 22, in Memorial Union Ballroom 2 from 1 to 2:15 p.m. The event is open to the campus and local communities.
Both undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty members from across the campus community will be displaying posters illustrating sustainability research and initiatives. These posters represent a broad range of sustainability action taking place at SFI and on the Michigan Tech campus.
Several posters in this year’s session will highlight the progress of ongoing research by the students involved in the Sustainable Futures Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeships program and its Wood-to-Wheels projects.
Since the poster session coincides with meetings of the SFI Advisory Board, members will be on hand. Attendees will have the chance to meet and mingle with board members, who represent the following: Caterpillar, Dow Corning, General Motors, The Great Lakes Commission, Kimberly-Clark, US Air Force, Steelcase, Motorola, Los Alamos National Laboratory of the Department of Energy, Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University and A&M College, and the USDA Forest Service.
This poster session is intended to strengthen the network of scholars interested in promoting the important research, education and outreach work in sustainability on the Michigan Tech campus and in the community.
Published in Tech Today
An incoming faculty member and several Michigan Tech graduate students of the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program of the Department of Social Sciences presented papers at the 2009 Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial Archaeology, held May 28-31 in Pittsburgh.
- master’s student Seth DePasqual, “Winning Coal at 78 Degrees North: Mining, Management and Negotiations at Old Longyear City”
- master’s student Megan Glazewski, “Discovering Landscape Gardening Practices within Industrial Landscapes of the 19th Century: William Kemble’s Cottage, Cold Spring, New York”
- doctoral candidate Cameron Hartnell, “High Arctic Coal Mining: The Strategy of the Arctic Coal Company”
- doctoral student Marc Henshaw, “The Steamboat Industry in Brownsville, Pa.: The Beginnings of the Industrialization in the Upper Monongahela Valley”
- doctoral student Erik Nordberg, “The Nordberg Manufacturing Company of Milwaukee: History, Archives and Research Potential”
- incoming Associate Professor Fredric Quivik (Social Sciences), “What Has Happened to Other Gritty Cities: Putting Paterson into Context”
- doctoral candidate Scott See, “National Heritage Area Candidate: The Iron Ranges of Lake Superior”
The society awarded Michigan Tech alum Marco Meniketti ’98 (MS in Industrial Archaeology) its 2009 Robert M. Vogel Prize. The award honors the author of the best article to appear in the society’s journal, IA, every three years.
Conference organizer and doctoral candidate Bode Morin (Industrial Heritage and Archaeology) was quoted in the May 29 issue of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.
From Tech Today
by Jennifer Donovan, public relations director
Michigan Tech’s College of Engineering graduates a higher percentage of women with PhDs in engineering than any other engineering school in the nation, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) reports.
Forty percent of Michigan Tech’s engineering doctoral degrees were awarded to women, according to the ASEE’s annual report, “Engineering by the Numbers.” The report is based on data from 2008. The next highest percentage of women PhD recipients in engineering was 38.7 percent, at the University of Rochester.
“What great news,” said Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School. “I congratulate the faculty in our College of Engineering and the Graduate School staff on recruiting and retaining these outstanding women. Michigan Tech’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) focus makes it challenging for us to maintain high levels of gender diversity on our campus because STEM programs tend to attract males. We plan to build on this success and continue to increase the diversity of our students.”
According to the report, only engineering schools that award at least 25 doctoral degrees during the year are ranked. There were 100 engineering schools nationwide that awarded 25 or more PhDs during 2008.
In undergraduate engineering degrees, Michigan Tech ranked third in the nation in numbers of bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering; 11th in numbers of civil engineering bachelor’s degrees; 16th in both computer engineering and electrical engineering; and 22nd in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by the College of Engineering.
“At a time when the state, nation and world need more women in engineering, I am pleased that the percentage of women receiving engineering PhDs at Michigan Tech is the highest in the nation,” said Tim Schulz, dean of the College of Engineering. “As these young women rise to leadership positions in industry, government and academia, they will serve as excellent role models for future generations.”
View the full ASEE report at www.asee.org/publications/profiles/upload/2008ProfileEng.pdf .
Applications for fall Finishing Fellowships are now open. The Graduate School anticipates funding up to 10 fellowships per semester with support ranging from $2,000 to full support (stipend plus tuition). Applications are due to the Graduate School no later than 4pm on June 26th.
Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:
- Must be a PhD student.
- Must expect to finish during the semester supported as a finishing fellow.
- Must be in Research Only Mode.
- No other source of support for fall semester.
Refer to our web page for full details regarding eligibility, application procedure, and evaluation criteria. Our online presentation also provides some tips to prepare your application.
Contact Debra Charlesworth or Heather Suokas with additional questions.
Nominations are closed for the 2009 competition.
Nominations are now open for the 2009 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/University Microfilms International (UMI) Distinguished Dissertation Award. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:
- biological and life sciences (more details)
- humanities/fine arts (more details)
Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2007, and June 30, 2009, are eligible. Next year, the 2010 competition will accept nominations in the fields of social sciences and mathematics/physical sciences/engineering for students who have graduated between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2010.
A nomination packet must include the following:
- a completed nomination form. The form is available at http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/2009UMI_NominationForm.pdf .
- a 10-page abstract of the dissertation, double spaced on white letter-sized paper.
- optional: abstract appendices containing non-textual material such as charts, tables or figures.
- a letter of reference from the dissertation advisor.
- a letter of reference from a member of the nominee’s dissertation committee.
- a letter of reference from a person chosen by the nominee.
- a pdf file of the dissertation on a CD.
The letters of reference should address the significance and quality of the dissertation work.
Nominations should be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 19. Contact Charlesworth (ddc@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition. See also the Council for Graduate School’s announcement page.
Posted in Tech Today
Former Michigan Tech graduate student Jill Bruning’s first-person report on research conducted with John Gierke in Nicaragua has been published on the LiveScience news website: www.livescience.com/environment/090515-bts-volcano-drilling.html .