Graduate School Newsblog

Tag: Awards

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Recipients for Fall and Spring announced

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce Finishing Fellowship recipients for the fall and spring semesters. 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.

Recipients for fall 2011 were:

  • Irfan Ahmed, PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering
  • Surendar R. Dhadi, PhD candidate in Biological Sciences
  • Neluka K. Dissanayake, PhD candidate in Engineering Physics
  • Shu Wei Goh, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering
  • Amber M. Roth, PhD candidate in Forest Science

Recipients for spring 2012 are:

  • Zeyad T. Ahmed, PhD candidate in Environmental Engineering
  • Kefeng Li, PhD candidate in Biological Sciences
    Charles L. Lawton Endowed Fellowship
  • Saikat Mukhopadhyay, PhD candidate in Physics
  • Zhiwei Peng, PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
    Doctoral Finishing Fellowship
  • Lindsey M. Shartell, PhD candidate in Forest Science
    Neil V. Hakala Endowed Fellowship

Nominations are currently open for summer 2012 finishing fellowships.  Materials are due no later than 4pm, March 14th.  See complete details online about the application and review procedure.

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Geology Graduate Student Honored

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Graduate student Patrick Manzoni (GMES) received the platinum corporate sponsor award for his outstanding student abstract at the 54th annual meeting of the Association of Environmental and Engineering Geologists, held in Anchorage, Alaska.

Manzoni was selected as one of the three awardees based on his abstract, “Slope Stability Analysis of the Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala, Using Limit Equilibrium and Finite Element Method.” A review committee of three AEG members selected Manzoni’s abstract from more than 30 student abstracts. The fieldwork forming the basis of the research was conducted as part of the Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) project.

Published in Tech Today

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Tech Reseachers Honored for Great Lakes Research

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The International Association for Great Lakes Research has honored five Michigan Tech faculty members and students.

The Chandler-Misener Award for the outstanding article published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research (JGLR) in 2010 was given to coauthors Professor W. Charles Kerfoot, PhD student Foad Yousef (Biological Sciences), Professor and Chair Sarah A. Green (Chemistry), former faculty member Judith W. Budd (GMES), and David J. Schwab and Henry A. Vanderploeg of NOAA.

Their paper, “Approaching Storm: Disappearing Winter Bloom in Lake Michigan,” documented the disappearance of a “doughnut” of phytoplankton in southern Lake Michigan associated with the proliferation of quagga mussels.

The award was presented to Kerfoot at the 54th International Conference on Great Lakes Research in Duluth, Minn. The Chandler-Misener Award acknowledges the most notable paper based on originality, contribution and presentation.

Cory McDonald, a recent PhD graduate in environmental engineering, received the JGLR/Elsevier Young Student Award. This award is given to “emerging young scientists with a JGLR article ranked in the top 10, as determined by the IAGLR Chandler-Misener Review Committee.” Recipients receive a complimentary one-year IAGLR membership and a $750 cash prize.

Published in Tech Today

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The DeVlieg Foundation and Finishing Fellowships Announced

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce recent recipients of fellowship support.

The DeVlieg Foundation supports MS and PhD candidates studying engineering or a closely related field.   Our spring 2011 recipients are:

  • Christopher D. DeDene, MS Candidate in Civil Engineering
  • Meagan L. Harless, PhD Candidate in Biological Sciences
  • Brett P. Spigarelli, PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering

Summer finishing fellowships were earned by six PhD candidates.  Finishing fellowships provide support to PhD candidates who expect to complete their degrees in the semester they are provided support.  The summer 2011 fellowships are made possible by the generous support of the Graduate School.

  • Yiru Chen, PhD candidate in Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology
  • Fredline Ilorme, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering
  • Daniel Lopez-Gaxiola, PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering
  • Seyyed Hessam Mir Shah Ghassemi, PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
  • Yinghong Qin, PhD candidate in Civil Engineering
  • Christopher Schwartz, PhD candidate in Biological Sciences

Photographs of all of these students as well as other awards and fellowships coordinated by the Graduate School can be found online.

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Graduate Student Represents Tech at National Poster Competion

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Graduate student Michael Brodeur-Campbell, an IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) trainee, is representing the University in IGERT’s 2011 national poster competition. He is a PhD candidate in chemical engineering.  His poster is titled “Implications of the Renewable Fuels Standard on Upper-Midwest Land Use.”

IGERT is the National Science Foundation’s flagship interdisciplinary training program, educating PhD scientists and engineers by building on the foundations of their disciplinary knowledge with interdisciplinary training.

See Brodeur-Campbell’s poster at IGERT .

Finalists will be announced on Friday, May 6.

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Winners of Rath Award for Research Announced

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Chee Huei Lee

For groundbreaking work in nanotechnology, Yoke Khin Yap and Chee Huei Lee have received the University’s Bhakta Rath Research Award.

The award, endowed by 1958 alumnus Bhakta Rath and his wife, Shushama Rath, recognizes a Michigan Tech doctoral student and advisor for “exceptional research of particular value that anticipates the future needs of the nation while supporting advances in emerging technology.”

Yap, an associate professor of physics, and then-PhD student Lee (he graduated in 2010) invented a technique for synthesizing boron nitride nanotubes. Compared to their carbon-based cousins, boron nitride nanotubes have alluring qualities but, before Yap and Lee’s pioneering work, had been notoriously difficult to grow.

The researchers created veritable nano-carpets of boron nitride nanotubes and discovered they possessed a number of interesting properties: They are perfect insulators, which means they could be doped to form designer semiconductors for use in electronics that operate at high temperatures. They are among the strongest materials known and can be dispersed in organic solvents, properties that could be useful in making high-strength composites and ceramics. Plus, they shed water like a duck’s back. This quality, known as superhydrophobicity, holds at all pH levels, which means they could be used as protective coatings to shield against the strongest acids and bases.

Yap said Lee played an important role in their collaboration. “I enjoy working with Chee Huei, as he is willing to listen, think and work hard on an idea, and then he comes back to tell you much more than what you were expecting,” said Yap. “My initial ideas mature and flourish with his feedback.”

Lee has authored or coauthored 12 peer-reviewed journal papers on their nanotube research, as well as three chapters and review articles and three papers in peer-reviewed proceedings. As recipients of the Rath Award, Yap and Lee will share a $2,000 prize. Their research work is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

To find out more, visit the Michigan Tech News Site .

by Marcia Goodrich, senior writer
Published in Tech Today

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MSGC Awards Announced

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Faculty and students have received awards totaling $72,500 through the Michigan Space Grant Consortium (MSGC), sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Michigan Tech submitted 30 proposals, 16 of which received funding.  See the Tech Today posting for all awardees.

Graduate students receiving $5,000 fellowships are:

  • Dulcinea Avouris (Geology, GMES): “Triggering of Volcanic Activity by Large Earthquakes”
  • Baron Colbert (Civil Engineering, CEE): “Using Nonmetals Separated From E-Waste in Improving the Mechanical Properties of Asphalt Materials”
  • Sarah Gray (Mechanical Engineering, ME): “Bear Parathyroid Hormone as a Treatment for Osteoporosis in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”
  • John Moyer (Mechanical Engineering, ME): “Effect of Simulated Low Gravity on Compressive Material Properties of Porcine Meniscus”
  • Alicia Sawdon (Chemical Engineering, ChE): “Production of Astaxanthin by Haematococcus pluvialis for Astronauts”
  • Christina Ylitalo (Biomedical Engineering, BME): “Controlling Inflammation Following Traumatic Injury Will Help Prevent Osteoarthritis”
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Two Tech Researchers Win Professional Opportunity Awards

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John Durocher, a research assistant professor and postdoctoral fellow in Exercise Science, and Huan Yang, a PhD candidate in Exercise Science through the Biological Sciences graduate program, have received the 2011 Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards from the American Physiological Society.

More than 140 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows throughout the US and beyond applied for the award this year. Only 38 awardees were selected, based on abstracts of their research.

“It is remarkable that both received this abstract-based award, and it is a credit to their hard work, dedication and high caliber of research,” said Dean Bruce Seely (CSA). “Most of the recipients are trainees at medical colleges throughout the US, making this even more remarkable.”

Durocher and Yang will be honored at the 2011 Experimental Biology conference in Washington, DC, this April.

Published by Jennifer Donovan, director of public relations

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Engineering Physics Graduate Student Wins Competition

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Abhishek Prasad, a graduate student in physics, won an award at the 2010 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting, which drew 6,000 participants.

Prasad earned first place among 50 finalists in the sciences and arts competition at the meeting. His entry, titled “Stem of nanoflowers,” was artificially composed of multiple scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures.

Prasad also presented a paper, “(CdSe) ZnS Core Shell Quantum Dots Decorated Zinc Oxide Nanowires for Solar Energy Harvesting Applications,” which appeared in Symposium W: Nanowires–Growth and Device Assembly for Novel Applications.

The MRS meeting was held in Boston from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3. Prasad is a doctoral student who works in Professor Yoke Khin Yap’s (Physics) research group.

Published in Tech Today

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UTC‐MiSTI Announces 2010 Student of the Year

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The University Transportation Center for Materials in Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure (UTC‐MiSTI) has selected Darrell Cass as its 2010 “Student of the Year.”

Cass will receive a $1,000 award, travel and registration expenses to attend the 90th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference in Washington, DC, and a certificate from the US Department of Transportation.

The TRB conference annually attracts more than 10,000 participants, including university researchers and students, government officials and industry professionals.

Cass received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Tech and will complete his master’s degree in May 2011.

His past research included sustainability applied to construction practices and transportation infrastructure. His current research involves quantifying greenhouse gas emissions associated with highway construction and rehabilitation for the Michigan Department of Transportation. This work will help develop tools to support transportation agencies in making more sustainable decisions in managing transportation infrastructure systems.

Cass, who is advised by Assistant Professor Amlan Mukherjee (CEE), has presented his research at the 89th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in 2010; the 2010 Construction Research Congress; the 2010 National Local Technical Assistance Program Association Annual Conference; and the International Conference on Sustainable Concrete Pavements. In February of 2011 he will present his work at the Louisiana State Engineering Conference.

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