Graduate School Newsblog

Category: News

Interesting stories about and for our students.

Gagnon to represent Tech for MAGS Competition

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Valoree Gagnon

The Graduate School is pleased to announce that Valoree Gagnon is Michigan Tech’s nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Distinguished Thesis Award.  Ms. Gagnon was nominated by her advisor, Dr. C. MacLennan of the Department of Social Sciences.  Her thesis, “Fish Contaminants through the Tribal Perspective: An Ethnography of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s Tribal Fish Harvest,” conducted an ethnographic inquiry on natural resource issues in indigenous communities.  Native American communities are vulnerable to    toxic substances   present in the water they fish, despite the warnings of negative impacts this could have on human health.  Her work could help policy-makers better understand the history and culture behind this dilemma, and allow them to make policies that take into account their traditions.  Her work is being discussed among professionals in the Michigan government responsible for making policies, at the International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes, and is being prepared for presentation at a conference.  She is currently continuing her education as a doctoral student at Michigan Tech with Dr. MacLennan, and is currently funded by an NSF GK-12 Global Watershed Fellowship.

Matthew Van Grinsven

Matthew Van Grinsven was noted by the panel as a nominee of distinction.  He was nominated by his advisor, Dr. A.S. Mayer, who holds a joint appointment in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences.  Mr. Van Grinsven’s work examined the relationship between groundwater inflows and coaster brook trout spawning sites.  This work will impact the coaster brook trout conservation efforts within the Salmon Trout River and the Lake Superior basin.  He is currently pursuing a PhD in Forest Science at Michigan Tech.

Three other graduate students were also nominated for consideration.  Lijun Chen was nominated by her advisor, Dr. B. Barkdoll of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Nayyer Islam was nominated by his advisor, Dr. W. Pennington of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences.  Jillian Schubert was nominated by her advisor, Dr. A. L. Mayer, who holds joint appointments in the Department of Social Sciences and School of Forest Resources and Environmental Policy.  All of the nominations were noteworthy, and the evaluation panel had a difficult task in selecting one nominee to represent Michigan Tech.

The Dean’s Advisory Panel, representing each college or school at Michigan Tech evaluated the nominees.  The faculty on this panel represent a broad range of graduate programs:  J. Gierke (Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences), S. Martin (Social Sciences), D. Flaspohler (School of Forestry Resources & Environmental Science), X. Wang (School of Technology) and G. Campbell (School of Business and Economics).  Next year’s competition will consider applicants who have completed their degrees between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012.  An application consists of an abstract of the thesis, recommendation letter from the advisor, and an electronic copy of the thesis.  Please consider nominating your master’s students next year.

A complete list of former nominees may be found online.

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University Rankings in News

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Michigan Tech was highlighted by the World Ranking Guide as one of world’s leading universities and MBA programs. Some of the highlights include:

  • Being ranked 115th among the National Universities by US News (2012).
  • Being listed in the top tier of national universities in the US News 2011 “Best Colleges”.
  • Garnering “Best in the Midwest” honors as it was included among Princeton Review’s The Best 373 Colleges, 2011 Edition.
  • Being ranked 213th globally in the Webometrics ranking of world universities, July 2010.
  • Being ranked the 7th most wired campus in the nation by PC Magazine in 2007.
  • Being ranked in the top 100 MBA programs in “Beyond Grey Pinstripes”, a ranking by the Aspen Institute.
  • Being ranked 179th of 600 US colleges and universities in research and development expenditures (NSF, 2004).

For more information see Ranking.

Originally posted in Tech Today.

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IPS offering airport pick-up services

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The International Programs and Services (IPS) Office launched their airport pick-up services last night for new students.  The University is expecting over 70 new graduate and undergraduate students from 21 different countries to enroll this Spring.  Airport pick up service to new students until January 11th.

Information about where students should go and what to do is available online at http://www.mtu.edu/international/ under “Important Dates and Events”.  Please contact ips@mtu.edu with any questions.

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Unlocking the Details to How Volcanoes Work

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Dr. Greg Waite was recently featured along with two graduate students, John Lyons and Joshua Richardson, in Live Science. The article, “Unlocking the Details to How Volcanoes Work” discusses Waite’s study of “mini-earthquakes.”

Waite is an assistant professor and graduate program director in the geological and mining engineering and sciences department.  Visit volcanoes to view the complete article.

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IPS Winter Break Social

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Recognizing that not all students “go home” between semesters, International Programs and Services will be hosting a winter break social from 2 to 5 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 21, in the Memorial Union Ballroom. The campus community is invited to stop by and chat with international students and scholars who will be in the area over the break. No reservation needed; there will be food, fun, prizes and bingo.

For more information, contact Danny Wan at dcwan@mtu.edu.

Published in Tech Today.

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International Student Dies in Car Crash

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Zhang Yue, an international graduate student in electrical engineering, died Wednesday, Dec. 14, in a car accident in Ontonagon County. He leaves behind a wife and young child, currently residing in Minnesota, and family in China.

The Office of International Programs and Services is working with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association to ensure that Zhang Yue’s memory is properly honored. If you would like additional information about how you can offer your sympathy or condolences to Zhang Yue’s family, please contact Thy Yang, IPS director, at thyy@mtu.edu.

Published in Tech Today.

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Board of Control Approves New Degree Programs

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At its regular meeting on Friday, Dec. 9, the Board of Control approved two new master’s degree programs, two new bachelor’s programs and a new PhD program. The new degrees–in medical informatics, biomedical engineering, biochemistry and molecular biology, physics and physics for high school teachers–now must go to the academic affairs officers of the Presidents’ Council, State Universities of Michigan, for review and approval.

The new master’s degrees reflect Michigan Tech’s commitment to providing the kind of education that industry is seeking. “The demand for master’s degrees is growing in industry,” said Provost Max Seel, “and we are trying to be proactive in meeting that need.”

The advancement of technology in the medical field, accompanied by the need to track and analyze vast amounts of data while keeping sensitive data confidential, created the need for the biomedical and medical informatics programs, he added.
The master’s degrees are professional degrees, designed to prepare students to work in the increasingly complex and demanding STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) specialties, Seel explained.

The University has also put in place an accelerated master’s degree framework, Seel noted. “We want students to know that at Michigan Tech, you can go straight through to a master’s degree,” he said.

The accelerated master’s program will enable students to complete a master’s degree in a shorter period of time than previously was possible. Biomedical engineering, the School of Technology and mechanical engineering are the first ones planning to offer an accelerated master’s degree.

The new PhD is a nondepartmental program in biochemistry and molecular biology, drawing on existing faculty and existing courses, Seel said.

The two new physics degrees are a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and a Bachelor of Arts in Physics with a concentration in secondary education.

“The motivation for offering a BA degree in physics is to give students who are not planning to study physics in graduate school a strong foundation in physics but significantly fewer physics course requirements than our current BS programs,” Seel explained. “The resulting flexibility will allow students to pursue other scholarly interests and career goals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, business, entrepreneurship, medicine and law. Physics can provide an excellent foundation for interdisciplinary endeavors in all of these fields.”

Seel said the University is also following a recommendation of the Gender Equity report of the American Physical Society to increase participation of women in physics. The recommendation reads: “Make it easier to enter a physics program after the first year to allow for late starters or those with lower initial preparation in mathematics. Create flexible tracks for physics majors to allow interdisciplinary studies or to pursue an education degree.”

The BA in Physics with a concentration in secondary education is designed to prepare more students to become high school physics teachers.

“The preparation of teaching professionals in the sciences has become an issue of national concern,” President Glenn Mroz said. “We are very fortunate in our local school districts to have excellent high school teachers with strong science credentials, but this is simply not true nationally. And if students don’t have good science teachers in K-12, they will not be prepared to pursue the math and science-related degrees in college that are in the highest demand for jobs.”

by Jennifer Donovan, director, public relations
Published in Tech Today

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Christmas for the Needy

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The MBA Student Association is leading the “Adopting a Family” program this holiday season.

Help collect unused clothing, toys and other items for a local family with four boys aged 5, 9, 11 and 12 who love hockey, floor hockey and LEGOs. The boys wear medium T-shirts and sizes 12, 12 slim, 10 husky, and 5T pants.

Place items in the “Adopt a Family” box in the lobby of the AOB. Feel free to wrap your donations, but attach a note telling what’s inside.

As well, cash donations will be accepted in the office of the School of Business and Economics and will be used to purchase food and other necessities for the family’s holiday celebration.

Donations will be accepted until Wednesday, Dec. 21.  For more information please contact the MBA Association President Zachary Hitt at zthitt@mtu.edu.

Posted in Tech Today.

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Over 400 Michigan Tech Grads to be Honored at Midyear Commencement

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Michigan Tech will hold Midyear Commencement at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 10, in the Wood Gymnasium at the SDC.
At the ceremony, the University will honor the achievements of more than 400 graduating students, including 336 students receiving undergraduate degrees, 107 master’s degree candidates, and 27 PhD recipients.

Chang K. Park ’73, founder, president and CEO of Universal Remote Control Inc., will give the commencement address as well as receive an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy. His Harrison, N.Y.-based company is a world leader in technology and innovation and has supplied more than 80 million remote controls and home automation devices in the past 10 years alone.

Born and raised in South Korea, Park came to the US as a teenager. He soon developed an interest in mathematics–the only language he could understand. After enrolling at Michigan Tech, he received bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and engineering administration and went on to earn an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career with an engineering consulting firm specializing in mass transit and for several years was employed in corporate finance. Then he started a business in his sister’s garage and steadily expanded it to market and develop remote controls and related devices.

He chairs the Chang K. Park Foundation, an organization that supports human rights, the elimination of poverty and hunger, political reform and economic justice. He is also a member of the board of Common Cause.

Written by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer

Published in Tech Today.

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