Graduate School Newsblog

Nominations Open for the 2013 Distinguished Dissertation Award

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Nominations are closed for this year’s competition.

Nominations are now open for the 2013 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award. Please submit nominations to the Graduate School no later than 4pm, July 1, 2013, following our online instructions. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. biological and life sciences (more details)
    Including:  biology; botany; zoology; ecology; embryology; entomology; genetics; nutrition; plant pathology; plant physiology; anatomy; biochemistry; biophysics; microbiology; pathology; pharmacology; physiology; agriculture, forestry, and related fields.
  2. humanities/fine arts (more details)
    Including: history; philosophy; language; linguistics; literature; archaeology; jurisprudence; the history, theory and criticism of the arts; ethics; comparative religion; and those aspects of the social sciences that employ historical or philosophical approaches.

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2013, are eligible.   Next year, the 2014 competition will accept nominations in the fields of social sciences and mathematics/physical sciences/engineering for students who have graduated between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2014.

Please direct your questions to Debra Charlesworth, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School.

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Spring 2013 Finishing Fellowship Awardees Announced

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce the recipients of the spring 2013 finishing fellowships. The fellowships were made available by the support of the Graduate School.

The recipients were:

  • Xiaochu Ding, PhD candidate in Chemistry
  • Jiqing Fan, PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering
  • Kevyn J. Juneau, PhD candidate in Forest Science
  • Michael T. Kivisalu, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Hui Wang, PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering

Finishing fellowship applications for fall 2013 are due no later than 4pm on June 20, 2013. Application procedures and photographs of recent recipients can be found online.

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Fall 2013 Nominations for Finishing Fellowships Sought

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Applications for fall 2013 finishing fellowships are now being accepted, and are due no later than 4pm, June 20, 2013 to Dr. Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School. Instructions on the application and evaluation process are found online.  Please note that the required form and materials requested have changed slightly for this cycle of competition.

Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:

  1. Must be a PhD student.
  2. Must expect to finish during the semester supported as a finishing fellow.
  3. Must have submitted no more than one previous application for a finishing fellowship.
  4. Must be eligible for or in Research Only Mode at the time of application.

Finishing Fellowships provide support to PhD candidates who are close to completing their degrees. These fellowships are available through the generosity of alumni and friends of the University. They are intended to recognize outstanding PhD candidates who are in need of financial support to finish their degrees and are also contributing to the attainment of goals outlined in The Michigan Tech Plan. The Graduate School anticipates funding up to ten fellowships with support ranging from $2000 to full support (stipend + tuition). Students who receive full support through a Finishing Fellowship may not accept any other employment. For example, students cannot be fully supported by a Finishing Fellowship and accept support as a GTA or GRA.

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Are You Cited? Find Out With Library’s New Citation Searching Guide

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The Van Pelt and Opie Library is pleased to offer a new guide to citation searching, which can be found online. This guide, created specifically for faculty and graduate students at Michigan Tech, contains helpful information for researchers in all academic disciplines.

Save yourself hours of searching time by using the guide to learn how to:

  • Determine if and where your publications have been cited
  • Discover works related to other authors, articles, or topics
  • Assess the relative quality or merit of a publication

If you have a suggestion for a database or other resource that should be added to the guide, please send an e-mail to reflib@mtu.edu or submit your suggestion using the link on the front page of the guide.

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Another I-Corps Team Claims First

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Michigan Tech’s latest I-Corps team placed first among 21 teams in New York last week, after a final presentation of their market analyses for new technologies. The team was led by Associate Professor Adrienne Minerick (CE), with post-doc Kaela Leonard serving as entrepreneurial lead and team mentor Mary Raber, associate director of the Institute for Leadership and Innovation.

A National Science Foundation program, I-Corps stands for Innovation Corps. Its goal is to help researchers learn how to do customer and market analysis, to enable them to fine-tune their technologies to meet an actual market need.

The technology they are looking to develop is a rapid, portable blood-typing device.

Minerick’s team is the third one from Michigan Tech chosen to participate in the I-Corps program.

Published in Tech Today

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Rail Transportation Program Announces AREMA Scholarship Recipients

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The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Educational Foundation recently selected the recipients of their 2013 scholarship campaign. Michigan Tech Rail Transportation Program (RTP) students received more awards than any other university with 7 of the 36 scholarships granted to these students:

* Dylan Anderson: Michigan Tech Alumni Scholarship

* Chris Blessing: AREMA Committee 27–Maintenance-of-Way Work Equipment Scholarship

* Anthony Passariello: Michigan Tech Alumni Scholarship

* Sean Pengelly: AREMA Committee 18–Light Density and Short Line Railways Scholarship

* Nicholas Lanoue: REMSA Scholarship

* Hamed Pouryousef: AREMA Educational Foundation Scholarship

* Irfan Rasul: AREMA Committee 30–Ties Scholarship

The AREMA Foundation provides scholarships to engineering students who are specializing in the railway industry and supports other educational and training endeavors that help to ensure the future of the profession.

All scholarship recipients were members of the Railroad Engineering and Activities Club (REAC), a multidisciplinary student organization for those with an interest in rail.

For more information about the club, see REAC.

Published in TechToday

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Spring 2013 BRC Travel Awards

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The Biotechnology Research Center announced its Spring 2013 Travel Grants. Recipients include:

Post-doctoral Research Scientist Presentation:
*Kaela Leonard (ECM) Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (podium)

Graduate Student Presentations:
*Patrick Bowen (EMSE) 2013 Minerals, Metals and Materials Society Meeting (podium)
*Katrina Bugielski (SCH) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (poster)
*Weilue He (EBE) Gordon Research Conference-Nitric Oxide (poster)
*Na Hu (SCH) American Geophysical Union 2012 (poster)
*Robert Larson (SBL) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Yiping Mao (SBL) Keystone Symposia on Molecular & Cellular Biology (poster)
*Sandra Owusu (FMGB) ASPB: 2013 Midwestern Section Annual Meeting (poster)
*Alison Regal (SACS) North American Society for the Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity (poster)
*Rafi Shaik (SBL) Plant and Animal Genome XXI (poster)
*Ashley Shortz (SACS) IEE Annual Conference and Expo (podium)
*Amy Sieloff (ECM) AIChE 2012 Annual Meeting (poster)
*Srinivasa Rao Sripathi (SBL) Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (poster)
*Huan Yang (SBL) Experimental Biology (poster)
*Nazmiye Yapici (SCH) 245th ACS National Meeting and Exposition (podium)

Published in Tech Today

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Seminar: Submitting your Dissertation, Thesis, or Report

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Students planning on finishing a thesis or dissertation spring or summer 2013 are invited a seminar designed to help students understand the submission process and answer questions about it.

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation with the location and a reminder of the date and time.

If you are unable to join us, this seminar will be taped and available online.

Significant changes were introduced in the fall based on revisions approved by the University Senate.  Join us to learn about the changes and have your questions answered.

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Michigan Tech’s Peace Corps Program Ranked Number 1 in the Nation

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Michigan Tech ranks as the top Peace Corps Master’s International (PCMI) university nationwide for the eighth consecutive year. With 35 PCMI graduate students currently serving as Peace Corps Volunteers, Michigan Tech has earned the top spot in the 2013 rankings of PCMI and Paul D. Coverdell Fellows graduate schools. Tulane University placed second.

The PCMI program enables graduate students to incorporate Peace Corps service for credit as part of their master’s degree curriculum. The Coverdell Fellows program provides returned Peace Corps volunteers with scholarships, internships in underserved American communities and stipends to help them earn an advanced degree after they complete their Peace Corps service.

For the whole story, see http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/may/story88794.html

Also: http://midwestpcvs.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/michigan-technological-university-remains-top-peace-corps-masters-international-graduate-school-nationwide/

Published in Tech Today by Jenn Donovan, public relations director

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Zinc: The Perfect Material for Stents?

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Patrick Bowen, PhD in Materials Science and Engineering
Stents can be lifesavers, holding open coronary arteries to allow a healthy supply of blood to flow to the heart. But they can also cause problems, because they stay in the body for a lifetime.

Researchers have been trying to solve the problem by designing a stent that will hold an artery open and then dissolve harmlessly after the blood vessel heals. Traditional metals have not had the right properties, however.

Now a team of scientists at Michigan Tech is experimenting with a novel material that may lead to a new generation of bioabsorbable stents: zinc.

For the full story, click here.

Published in Tech Today by Marcia Goodrich, magazine editor

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