Graduate School Newsblog

Tag: Finishing Fellowship

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Spring 2021 Recipient – Joe Shannon

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I am excited to have the opportunity of a finishing fellowship to complete my research. I am interested in using site-level ecohydrology research to estimate watershed-scale impacts with the goal of providing results that can guide land managers and policymakers. My current research is a combination of modeling future conditions and mapping wetland distribution. These projects build on the 10 years I have spent studying the impact of emerald ash borer on black ash wetlands. Using a combination of optical imagery and synthetic aperture radar, I am working to quantify the distribution of these relatively unmapped wetlands. Mapping these wetlands is the first step to mitigating the effects of EAB, which will require long-term management strategies. To guide climate-adapted management tactics, I am also modeling the combined impacts of EAB and climate change. Using wetland models, I simulate how mitigated and impacted wetlands will respond to changing temperature and precipitation patterns.

Specifically, how will wetland inundation patterns change, and what impacts will those changes have on other ecosystem components. With the knowledge of where these wetlands are located and how they will change in the future, better decisions can be made to retain their benefits.

Joe Shannon

Research Scientist & PhD Candidate

School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences Michigan Technological University

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Spring 2021 Recipient – Saeid Jamilan

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I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. From the beginning of my Ph.D. program at Michigan Tech, I started to perform research on developing novel electromagnetic and photonic devices. They include invisibility cloaks, collimators, and metasurfaces formed from low-loss all-dielectric photonic crystals and resonators. I performed theoretical calculations and analysis involving Maxwell’s equations, Transformation Optics, and Mie theories. In addition, I conducted numerical simulations and experimental measurements. This led to achieving promising results that appeared in publications, already cited by well-known research groups from different countries. These results allow for developing advanced applications in shielding the objects from harmful irradiations, sensing, imaging, holography, communications, and medicine. I also had opportunities to improve my teaching skills as a graduate teaching assistant for four semesters. Furthermore, I have frequently served as a reviewer for high-impact scientific journals during recent years.

I would like to thank the Graduate School, Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel, and dean for awarding me a Finishing Fellowship that allows me to finish my research. I am also grateful to my advisor, Dr. Elena Semouchkina, for her continuous guidance and support.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Spring 2021 Recipient – Zhihao Zhao

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I am Zhihao, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. In Fall 2016, I decided to come to Michigan Tech as a master’s student but transferred to a Ph.D. student after my first semester. At the same time, I joined Dr. Seong-Young Lee’s group for spray and combustion studies during the past four years. I am also a Research Assistant of Combustion Science Exploration Lab (CSEL) Group especially in Alternative Energy Research Building (AERB). My research mainly focuses on Laser-Based combustion diagnostics, Spray-wall interactions, and Alternative fuel combustion characteristics. I have enjoyed my Ph.D. life at MTU and I hope I can continue my academic life after my graduation.

At last, I would like to thank the Graduate school for awarding me with the Doctoral finishing fellowship. Also, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Seong-Young Lee, for supporting me during the past four years.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Spring 2021 Recipient – Gabrial Edzordzi Agbozo

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I am currently a PhD candidate on the interdisciplinary Rhetoric, Theory and Culture program in the Department of Humanities. Previously I obtained a Master of Philosophy degree in English Linguistics and Language Acquisition from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, and a BA in English and Linguistics from the University of Ghana. My current research interests are located at the intersections of Technical Communication, Critical Discourse Studies, and Rhetoric. My dissertation contributes to international technical communication and technologies through analyzing how a locally developed geo-spatial technology was created to organize a digital addressing system in a Global South context. I demonstrate the consequences of such technological innovations and policies for developing countries. My work has been well received with at least seven awards for its importance in centering and theorizing technologies emerging from the complex transnational context. Additionally, I work within medical rhetoric, researching the rhetorical ethics of medical discourse, especially transnational Coronavirus vaccine trials, and how multinational pharmaceutical writing could be more audience-focused. I have developed a Multimodal Critical Discourse Pedagogy that emphasizes critical-rhetorical micro disciplinary and macro social contexts that address real-world exigencies and audiences beyond students’ familiar geographies. This Finishing Fellowship will help me totally concentrate on writing and revising my dissertation, defending it, and graduating as scheduled. I am grateful to the Michigan Tech Graduate School and the Graduate Dean Awards Advisory Panel for this fellowship. I am also grateful to my advisor, Dr. Victoria L. Bergvall, for her guidance and support and to the Department of Humanities for supporting my graduate studies.

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Summer 2021 Finishing Fellowship Nominations Open

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Applications for Summer 2021 finishing fellowships are being accepted and are due no later than 4pm, March 3, 2021 to the Graduate School. Please email applications to gradschool@mtu.edu.

Instructions on the application and evaluation process are found online. 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 candidacy (tuition charged at Research Mode rate) at the time of application.
  5. Must not hold a final oral examination (“defense”) prior to the start of the award semester.

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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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Xiaodong Zhou

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I came to MTU in 2017 to pursue my Ph.D. with Dr. Alex Mayer in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This has been a great experience because I learned a lot, but also because I collaborated with amazing people and made very good friends. My research focuses on hydrology modeling to assess the effects of the Payment for Hydrological Services program in Veracruz, Mexico. This is one of the longest operating payments for ecosystem services in the World and the scientific results produced by our research group, contribute to better understanding the connections between social and ecological systems and to make more informed decisions in terms of Water Resources Management. My thanks and gratitude to the graduate school and to the Michigan Tech Community for your support to complete my research.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Alejandra Almanza

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I started my PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in Fall 2016 under the guidance of Dr. Paul Sanders. I have been working in the production and optimization of ductile iron, and it has been four great years full of challenges, achievements, and lessons learned. I feel passionate about research and learning new things every day, Michigan Tech has given me these experiences.

I want to sincerely express my gratitude to the Graduate School for awarding me with the Fall 2020 Finishing Fellowship. A big thank you to my advisor, who has given me positive feedback and encourage me throughout my degree. And finally, thank you to the Materials Science and Engineering department for all the support provided during my time here.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Sergio Miguel, Lopez Ramirez

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I came to MTU in 2017 to pursue my Ph.D. with Dr. Alex Mayer in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This has been a great experience because I learned a lot, but also because I collaborated with amazing people and made very good friends. My research focuses on hydrology modeling to assess the effects of the Payment for Hydrological Services program in Veracruz, Mexico. This is one of the longest operating payments for ecosystem services in the World and the scientific results produced by our research group contributes to better understand the connections between social and ecological systems and to make more informed decisions in terms of Water Resources Management. My thanks and gratitude to the graduate school and to the Michigan Tech Community for your support to complete my research. 

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Srinivas Kannan

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I began my doctoral research in the Fall of 2016 in the Biomedical Microdevices lab under the guidance of Dr. Smitha Rao and Dr. Marina Tanasova (Department of Chemistry). My research focuses on understanding compromised metabolic processes in breast cancers and their impact on the local tumor environment and cancer metastasis using a microfluidic platform.  The overall objective is to better understand the nutrient microenvironment and impact from the nutrients available in the body on breast cancer, to improve cancer detection and therapy.  My doctoral work also includes developing three-dimensional in vitro models for understanding cancer microenvironment and metabolic differences, differential uptake of fructose among breast cancer phenotypes, and develop a platform for cancer diagnostics.

I thank the Michigan Tech Grad School for the fellowship and the Department of Biomedical Engineering for their support.

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Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2020 Recipient – Esmaeil Dehdashti

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Esmaeil Dehdashti is a PhD candidate who joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University in July 2017.  He holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran.

Esmaeil works in the Complex Fluids and Active Matter Lab, where they employ the tools of applied mathematics and simple experiments to fundamentally understand the interaction of fluid flows with dynamically changing boundaries at a wide range of length and time scales. Esmaeil’s research focuses on developing a number of computer simulations to fully capture and comprehend the interaction of fluid flows with moving objects at a wide range of length scales. Esmaeil has extremely broad scientific interests that range from hydrodynamics of flapping porous plates and swimming of robotic fish to droplet evaporation and transport phenomena in particulate systems.

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