Graduate School Newsblog

Tag: Awards

Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Teresa Wilson

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Teresa Wilson
Physics

Teresa WilsonBefore entering graduate school, I earned my BA in Mathematics at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA and taught middle and high school STEM classes at an all-girls school in Post Falls, ID. I began my graduate studies here at Michigan Tech in Fall 2012. I am currently a PhD Candidate in Physics working with Dr. Robert Nemiroff. I research and develop new methods to predict sunrise and sunset times, specifically looking at how to better implement atmospheric refraction into the currently used sunrise/set algorithms. During my studies at Michigan Tech, I have been able to create a collaboration with the Astronomical Applications Department at the US Naval Observatory with the help of Dr. Jennifer Bartlett, their Software Division Chief. This collaboration has led to three successful summers of research on the development of a new sunrise/set algorithm at their facilities in Washington, DC as part of the Naval Research Enterprise Internship Program.

Michigan Tech has provided me an environment in which I was able to take the initiative to follow my research interests and create an outside network to achieve my goals. I am grateful to the Graduate School and the Dean’s Advisory Panel for providing me with the support of the Finishing Fellowship. This fellowship allows me the opportunity to focus on writing my dissertation and complete it in a timely manner.

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Portage Health Foundation Fall 2017 Ashok Khanal

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Ashok Khanal
Chemistry
Ashok Khanal

I received my Master degree in organic chemistry from Nepal. The final touch that shaped my interest in organic chemistry came after studying different iconic organic reactions and synthesis that had pushed the limit of human endeavors to synthesize molecules to catch up with the escalating need for the drug, and brought new avenues in the field of chemistry. I began my PhD at Michigan Tech in Jan 2012. I published different papers in peer-reviewed journal.  My research focuses on stepwise solid phase synthesis of PEGs and measurement of mechanical force of single covalent bond.

This Portage Health Foundation fellowship helps me to write my dissertation. I would like to thank my advisor, graduate school and Portage Health Foundation for the achievement.

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Portage Health Foundation Fall 2017 Wenkai Jia

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Wenkai Jia
Biomedical Engineering
Wenkai Kia

My name is Wenkai (Vicky) Jia, and I am from a seaside city located in northeast China. My interests are in biology and chemistry and I chose Bio-functional Materials as my undergraduate major in Beijing University of Chemical Technology. I joined Dr. Feng Zhao’s lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and kept working in the area of tissue engineering from 2015. My current research is applying stem cells as regenerative medicine to treat lymphedema and investigating the mechanism underneath. We anticipate that stem cell therapy could cure lymphedema and it would perform better and be more promising than conventional treatments.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Liang Chang

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Liang Chang
Materials Science and Engineering
Liang Chang

Liang Chang received her BS and MS degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Wuhan University of Technology in China. Now, she is pursuing her PhD degree in MTU from 2013 under the instruction of Prof. Yun Hang Hu. Currently, her research focuses on electrode materials for supercapacitors, carbon electrodes for CDI water treatment, and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides for devices. After 4 years systematic training, she is confident and looks forward to fulfilling her career in contributing to energy storage area.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Xu Zhang

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Xu Zhang
Electrical Engineering
Xu Zhang

My name is Xu Zhang. I was born in the northeast of China, the weather in my hometown is just like here. I received my BS and MS from Harbin Institute of Technology and began my doctoral study in Electrical Engineering at Michigan Tech. My research area is related to modeling, design, and simulation of metamaterial structures for previously unthought-of applications such as diffraction-unlimited imaging and stopped light. The five years of training and research broadens my horizons, expands my knowledge and develops my insight. It is a great honor to receive the finishing fellowship at the final stage of my doctoral study. After graduation, I will continue working in metamaterial area and live my life with all the experience I got at Michigan Tech.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Amaneh Eslami Kenarsari

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Amaneh Eslami Kenarsari
Civil Engineering
Amaneh Eslami KenarsariI’m a PhD candidate in Civil Engineering working on a joint project with the Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Department. I began my studies at Michigan Tech in Fall 2013 and will be finishing in Fall 2017.

The focus of our research is in developing techniques to accurately assess soil compaction from agricultural tires. A key factor in agricultural productivity is minimizing soil compaction. To meet the world’s food production needs by 2050, the world’s food production must increase at a rate of 2.4% per year. Current food production rates, however, are only increasing at 1.2% per year. In an attempt to minimize soil compaction, tractor tire manufacturers are developing “low aspect ratio” tires designed to minimize soil compaction. A major issue in assessing the effectiveness of these tires, however, is in accurately measuring the amount of soil compaction caused by the tires which is investigated in our research.

Receiving the finishing fellowship from Graduate School is a great honor and helps me focus on finishing my research and dissertation.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Brandon Jackson

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Brandon Jackson
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Brandon_Jackson_2My name is Brandon Jackson and I am currently a Ph.D. candidate at Michigan Technological University studying Mechanical Engineering. I received my B.S. degree from Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2012 and a M.S. from Michigan Technological University in 2014, both in Mechanical Engineering. My research is conducted within the Ion Space Propulsion Lab at Michigan Tech under the advisement of Dr. Brad King. The focus of my research is on electrospray of ferrofluids. Electrospray is a process by which a jet of electrically charged fluid is ejected from a liquid surface using an electric field. Electrospray has received considerable attention recently as a potential means to provide on-orbit propulsion for very small satellites.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Shiva Bhandari

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Shiva Bhandari
Physics

Shiva Bhandari

Before starting my PhD program at Michigan Tech in Fall 2012, I completed my Bachelors and Master’s degree in Physics from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. My research focuses on synthesis and functionalization of Boron Nitride based nanomaterials for their electronic applications. With miniaturization of electronic devices, the size of silicon-based transistors are getting smaller. Insulating boron nitride nanomaterials functionalized with metallic nanoparticles or carbon-based nanomaterials could be the new class of transistors for future electronics.

The last 5 years at Michigan Tech has been a wonderful learning experience. Michigan Tech has provided me great learning opportunity and helped me develop personally and professionally. Besides learning to troubleshoot complex research problems, it taught me how to be a strong and a confident individual, how to be a team player and work in a diverse environment. I hope my learning experience at Michigan Tech will help me pave the way to a successful career in materials research. I am grateful to the Graduate School and the Dean’s Advisory Panel for this fellowship support. This fellowship helps me spend my full time on dissertation writing without any distraction from other teaching duties.

 

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowships Fall 2017 Recipient Pei Hou

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Pei Hou
Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences

Pei Hou

I am an Atmospheric Sciences PhD candidate in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences. I feel very lucky to have met my advisor Dr. Shiliang Wu, who gives me lots of help and guides me to clarify my abilities and interests. My research interests lie in data analysis and modeling about the atmospheric chemistry, more specifically, the impacts of extreme air pollution meteorological events on air quality and the related prediction. The extreme air pollution meteorological events include heat waves (extremely high temperature), temperature inversion (abnormal vertical temperature profile), atmospheric stagnation (low wind speed and precipitation rates), and so on. We try to figure out how the extreme air pollution meteorological events affect the concentrations and the high pollution episodes of ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). We also make an attempt to predict the high pollution episodes with the occurrences of the extreme events. We hope our research could encourage environmental management to plan the emission regulation with the consideration of the changes in the extreme air pollution meteorological events in the context of climate change. I sincerely appreciate the help from the Finishing Fellowship supported by Graduate School, which would be a great help on both my research and dissertation.

 

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Dean’s Award for Outstanding Scholarship Spring 2017

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Recipients—Spring 2017

  • Yunana Ahmed (Rhetoric, Theory and Culture PhD)
  • Samer A. Alokaily (Mathematical Sciences PhD)
  • Shiva S. Bhandari (Physics PhD)
  • Sachin M. Bhosle (Mechanical Engineering PhD)
  • Nicholas W. Bolton (Forest Science PhD)
  • Kyle A.  Brill (Geophysics PhD)
  • Natasha I. Chopp (Data Science MS)
  • Mustafa Gezek (Mathematical Sciences PhD)
  • Pei Hou (Atmospheric Sciences PhD)
  • Caoyang Jiang (Electrical Engineering PhD)
  • Yiping Mao (Biological Sciences PhD)
  • Chelsea J. Nikula (Chemistry PhD)
  • Zichen Qian (Biomedical Sciences PhD)
  • Amir Rezaei (Electrical Engineering PhD)
  • Abbey J. Senczyszyn (Master of Business Administration)
  • Ali Solouk (Mechanical Engineering PhD)
  • Shuo Wang (Mechanical Engineering PhD)
  • Dong Xia (Accounting MS)
  • Wentao Yao (Mechanical Engineering PhD)
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