Graduate School Newsblog

Global Health Corps Fellowships

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Several Fellowship Applications are still open for the Global Health Equity Fellow Program.

Fellows must be:

  • Under age 30 at the time of application
  • Graduating or have graduated from undergraduate University studies
  • Proficient in English

No specific background or technical experience is necessary, as each individual Fellowship assignment will require different specific skills. Look at the Fellowships to learn about the specific assignments and the skills that our placement organizations are looking for.

For all Fellowships, we value three qualities: strength of character, relevant skills and experience, and leadership.

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TogetherGreen Conservation Fellowships

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TogetherGreen, an alliance between the National Audubon Society and Toyota, is accepting applications for its Conservation Fellowships and Innovation Grants.

Through TogetherGreen Conservation Fellowships, forty promising individuals (half from the Audubon network and half from external organizations) will be chosen for their leadership potential, skills, and commitment to engaging people of diverse backgrounds in conservation action. Fellows receive a $10,000 grant, assistance launching a conservation action project, and specialized training. They also become part of an alumni network of conservation professionals from across the country. Fellowship candidates must have at least six years’ experience in some aspect of the environment.

TogetherGreen Innovation Grants annually provide funding that enables the Audubon Society and its partners to support activities that engage people in conservation action and create healthier communities. Grant funds will be awarded to Audubon’s broad national network — including Audubon chapters, programs, centers, sanctuaries, and independent Audubon groups — each working in partnership with one or more external organizations. Recipients will be chosen based on their innovative ideas for achieving conservation results focused on habitat, water, and energy. Selected grants will also need to demonstrate how they are reaching new and diverse communities and helping people get engaged in local conservation action.

Audubon will select a minimum of forty proposals and provide more than $1 million in total support. Grants will range from $5,000 to $80,000 each, with the majority averaging roughly $25,000.

Visit the TogetherGreen Web site for complete application information.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP

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Michigan Space Grant Consortium Funds 27 Projects at Michigan Tech

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The Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC), sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has awarded approximately $375,000 to nine Michigan universities with aerospace, engineering and space- science-related programs. Michigan Tech submitted 40 proposals, and 27 received funding totaling $105,000.

Of that, $20,000 supports undergraduate fellowships, $30,000 is for graduate research fellowships, $30,000 provides seed grants for faculty, and $25,000 is designated for outreach, including K-12 and teacher training programs.

Undergraduate students receiving $2,500 research fellowships include Andrew Ramsey (ME-EM), Phil Hohnstadt (ME-EM), Peter Solfest (Physics), Stephen Schweitzer (Biomedical Engineering), John Visser (ME-EM), Samantha Wojda (Biomedical Engineering), Patrick Bowen (MSE), William Grant (Chemical Engineering) and Ben Gerhardt (ME-EM).

Graduate students receiving $5,000 fellowships include Christopher Schwartz (Biological Sciences), Elisabet Head (Geology), Jarod Maggio (Environmental Engineering), Adam Abraham (ME-EM), Matthew Barron (Biomedical Engineering), Megan Killian (Biomedical Engineering) and Amalia Anderson (Physics).

Faculty members receiving $5,000 seed grants included Shiyan Hu, Jason Carter, Audrey Mayer, Qingli Dai, Ashok Goel and Claudio Mazzoleni. Faculty and staff members receiving $5,000 for outreach, precollege and teacher training programs include Douglas Oppliger, Shawn Oppliger, Joan Chadde and Kristi Isaacson.

One student receiving an undergraduate fellowship is Samantha Wojda. She plans to use her grant to study how hibernation affects the bones of marmots. Disuse osteoporosis is a common problem faced by astronauts in microgravity. Hibernating mammals are also at high risk for the condition, and many have developed adaptive ways of dealing with it. Wojda plans to study hibernating marmots to see how they are affected by or protected from disuse osteoporosis. What she learns may help researchers find ways to prevent human astronauts and others who are immobilized for long periods of time from developing the debilitating condition.

NASA implemented the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program in 1989 to provide funding for research, education and public outreach in space-related science and technology. The program has 52 university-based consortia in the United States and Puerto Rico. As part of the Michigan Consortium, Michigan Tech has been an active participant in MSGC for over fifteen years.

“The MSGC offers faculty, staff and especially students opportunities to develop ideas and submit competitive proposals,” said Chris Anderson, special assistant to the President for institutional diversity and the University’s MSGC liaison. “For undergraduates, the process of developing a proposal and then doing the research allows them to apply what they’re learning in the classroom, get hands-on experience and work closely with faculty.” She added, “The Consortium allows us to do more of this, as well provide graduate fellowships, seed grants and program support.”

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Four Michigan Tech Graduate Programs Rank in Top 50 Nationwide

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Graduate school rankings released by US News and World Report today rank four of Michigan Tech graduate engineering programs in the top 50 nationwide. The annual rankings evaluated graduate programs in 192 schools of engineering.

Michigan Tech’s ranked engineering programs included:
• Environmental engineering–28th
• Mechanical engineering–48th
• Materials science and engineering–48th
• Civil engineering–49th

Tech’s College of Engineering overall ranked in the top 100, at 86th.

For the first time this year, US News and World Report also ranked biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, earth sciences, mathematics and physics. Earth sciences at Michigan Tech ranked in the top 100, at 81st. Physics ranked 122nd, and biological sciences, 207th.

“This year’s rankings really show that competition for the ‘top 50′ is increasing. We are neck-and-neck with some very strong programs” said Jackie Huntoon, dean of the Graduate School.

Each year, US News and World Report ranks graduate schools of engineering, business, the sciences, the humanities and social sciences, medicine and other health specialties, law and education. They base these rankings on two types of data: expert opinions by the programs’ peers and statistical indicators of program quality. The data come from surveys conducted in the fall of 2009 of more than 12,400 academics and professionals and more than 1,200 graduate programs.

Engineering specialties are ranked solely on the basis of assessments by department chairs in each specialty. The American Society for Engineering Education recommends the department chairs to be surveyed.

The rankings will be featured in the May 2010 issue of US News and World Report, scheduled to be on the newsstands on April 27. A guidebook called “America’s Best Graduate Schools” will be available for purchase on April 20.

Information is also available online at www.usnews.com/grad .

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Online Power Engineering MS Marks 10th Anniversary

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A decade ago, Cooper Power asked Michigan Tech to provide its engineers with additional distance-learning training in power engineering. Since then, the electrical and computer engineering faculty have developed a full-fledged online MS in Electrical Engineering that focuses on power systems, as well as two certificate programs.

Dozens of students, both on and off campus, are now enrolled, and many more have graduated. The program’s strength reflects a renewed awareness of the importance of electrical power, says Professor Bruce Mork, director of Michigan Tech’s Power and Energy Research Center.

“Energy has become a national security issue,” he says. “It’s more important than ever to have infrastructure that is robust and reliable.”

The full release is available at the Michigan Tech News site.

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Graduate Students Showcase Their Research in Lansing

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capitolFour graduate students from Michigan Tech have gone to Lansing to talk with legislators about their graduate studies and future plans. Participating in an observance of Graduate Education Week in Michigan, they are joining more than 70 others from universities across the state, meeting with their hometown legislators and displaying posters in the Capitol.

Michigan Tech students include Michael Brodeur-Campbell of Lake Linden, who is working on his PhD in chemical engineering; Megan Killian from LaSalle, an interdicisplinary PhD student in biomedical and mechanical engineering; Melanie Kueber, a PhD student in civil engineering from Munising; and Christopher Morgan of Jenison, who is working toward a PhD in mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics.

Brodeur-Campbell, who is originally from Port Huron, earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and business administration at Michigan Tech. His research focuses on improving the enzymatic breakdown of cellulose to glucose, a vital step in the production of ethanol from plants. This step has proved a major hurdle to commercial production of this kind of ethanol, which does not compete with the food supply, due to the high cost of the enzymes and the length of time they take to work.

Killian’s research focuses on how mechanical loads applied to the meniscus–cartilage in the knee–affect the behavior of this tissue at the microscopic and cellular levels, with the aim of eventually improving tissue engineering of replacements. She is also studying osteoarthritis produced by injuries to the knee, in hopes of developing better treatments and rehabilitation strategies.

Kueber, who also earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Michigan Tech, went on to earn her master’s in project management at Northwestern University. Back at Tech for her doctoral studies, she is working to modify specifications and test methods for coal fly ash used in highway concrete, to make coal ash more useful as a supplementary material in concrete.

Morgan, a member of the Advanced Internal Combustion Engines research group at Michigan Tech, has been using gasoline direct- injection studies to compare ethanol to pump-grade gasoline in a combustion vessel. Now he is working on building a mobile hybrid electric vehicle learning laboratory funded by the US Department of Energy and helping undergraduate senior design students build a hybrid electric vehicle for educational use.

Graduate education is a key to a prosperous future for Michigan, said Jacqueline Huntoon, dean of Michigan Tech’s Graduate School. Michigan ranks ninth in the US for the number of research-based doctorates awarded, with 2,720 awarded in 2008-09. Of those, 47 were awarded at Michigan Tech.

all-attendees

Photos courtesy of Randy Mascharka and Eastern Michigan University

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Two Tech Students Awarded Scholarships

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Two Michigan Tech students have been awarded scholarships from the Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) Michigan chapter.

Erin Bertocchi, an undergraduate civil engineering student from Gwinn, MI, received the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship awarded specifically for women pursuing an undergraduate degree related to the field of transportation. Erin discovered her interest in the design and construction of roads through two previous summer internships with MDOT’s Technical Service Centers in Newberry and Escanaba.

Mary Christiansen, a graduate student from Shelby, MI, pursuing her PhD in Civil Engineering, was selected to receive the Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship awarded annually to a graduate student pursuing a degree related to the field of transportation. Mary is a scholar in the University Transportation Center for Materials in Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure (UTC-MiSTI), working on the development of geopolymer cement concrete with Larry Sutter and Karl Peterson.

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Award Recipients Announced for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

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The results of the 2010 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition have been announced. Michigan Tech applauds six of its student applicants who received Fellow Awards this year:

  • Kaitlyn (Reed) Bunker (Electrical Engineering)
  • Nicole Colasacco-Thumm (Geosciences/Climate Dynamics)
  • Jared Cregg (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Ashley Thode (Civil Engineering)
  • Eli Vlaisavljevich (Bioengineering)
  • Samantha Wojda (Biomedical Engineering)

Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, a one-time $1,000 international travel allowance and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited US or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

Six Michigan Tech students were recognized with honorable mention:

  • Sarah Gray (Biomedical)
  • Katherine Becker (Materials Science)
  • Brian Devree (Biology)
  • Katelyn FitzGerald (Geological Engineering, graduate student)
  • Joseph Licavoli (Engineering – Metallurgical, graduate student)
  • Peter Radecki (Mechanical Engineering)

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a history and reputation of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. To be eligible for the NSF GRFP, students must:

  • be a US citizen, US national or permanent resident alien
  • be in a research-focused Master’s or PhD program in an NSF-supported field
  • be in the final year of an undergraduate program, first year graduate student or first semester of second year in graduate school (no more than 12 months of graduate courses).

An informative session on applying to the 2011 NSF GRFP will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, in Fisher 130. Contact Jodi Lehman for more information.

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Call for 2010 Rath Award Nominations

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The Vice President for Research is accepting nominations for the Bhakta Rath Research Award, which was made possible by an endowment from Bhakta B. Rath and his wife, Sushama Rath. The award offers an opportunity to promote and reward excellence in scientific and engineering research in the field of physical and natural sciences and engineering. View Tech’s research website for complete submission guidelines. Nominations will be accepted until 4 p.m., Friday, April 30.

Posted in Tech Today

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Alumnus Endows Bhakta Rath Research Award

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When Bhakta B. Rath was earning his master’s degree in metallurgical and materials engineering at Michigan Tech in 1958, the US was an undisputed world leader in science and technology. Now he’s the associate director of research and head of the Materials Science and Component Technology Directorate at the US Naval Research Laboratory, and Rath worries about a declining interest in this country in studying science and technology.

So he and his wife, Sushama Rath, have endowed the Bhakta Rath Research Award to motivate Michigan Tech faculty and doctoral students to conduct the kind of research that will meet the nation’s needs and the challenges of emerging technologies. The annual award will be $2,000, split between a graduate student and his or her faculty advisor.

Rath’s gift supports the strategic direction of Michigan Tech: to grow and strengthen its research enterprise and graduate program.

Published in Tech Today

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