Tag: Theses and Dissertations

Jennifer Heglund represents Michigan Tech for MAGS Distinguished Thesis Award

Jennifer Heglund
Jennifer Heglund
The Graduate School is pleased to announce that Jennifer Heglund was Michigan Tech’s nominee for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools Distinguished Thesis Award.  Ms. Heglund was nominated by her advisor, Dr. B. Barkdoll of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Her thesis, “Effects of Climate Change Induced Heavy Precipitation Events on Sediment Transport in Lower Michigan Rivers” modeled the potential effects of climate change, particularly heavy rainfall, on sediment transport in rivers.  Increased sediment transport could have an effect on erosion along rivers, and the models Ms. Heglund developed could be used for planning and land management. Ms. Heglund is currently employed by Northeast Technical Services in Virginia, Minnesota.

Fifty-one theses in the midwest were nominated for the award, and although her work was not recognized as the award recipient, it was well received by the reviewers.  One reviewer commented, “I enjoyed reading this thesis – it’s a pleasure to see such a complete approach to a problem.”

Seth DePasqual was also nominated by his advisor, Dr. T. Scarlett, on behalf of the Social Sciences Department.  His advisor described his thesis as, “…a study of the evolution of an early 20th century mining system in Spitsbergen as applied by Boston-based Arctic Coal Company.”

The committee to evaluate the nominees consisted of graduate faculty representing a broad range of graduate programs:  M. Neuman (Biomedical Engineering), S. Martin (Social Sciences), R. Froese (School of Forestry Resources & Environmental Science), B. Davis (School of Technology) and G. Campbell (School of Business and Economics).  Next year’s competition will consider applicants who have completed their degrees between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010.  An application consists of a recommendation letter from the advisor and an electronic copy of the thesis.  Please consider nominating your MS students next year.

New Theses and Dissertations in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the arrival of new theses and dissertations from our recent graduates in the J. R. Van Pelt Library and John and Ruanne Opie Library.  The names of our graduates, their degrees, advisors, and titles of their research are listed below.

Brian Beachy
Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Science
Advisor: Andrew J Storer
Dissertation title: Impacts of the Exotic Beech Bark Disease Complex in Michigan

Jessica Beachy
Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Science
Advisor: Andrew John Storer
Dissertation title: The Development of Trapping, Survey and Educational Tools for the Exotic Invasive Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilusplanipennis Fairmaire) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)

Luke Bowman
Master of Science in Geology
Advisor: William I Rose
Thesis title: Community Perceptions of an NGO’s Impact on Disaster Preparedness in Los Planes de La Laguna, Santa Ana Volcano, El Salvador

Venkat Donuru
Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry
Advisor: Haiying Liu
Dissertation title: Design and Synthesis of Novel BODIPY Polymeric Dyes, and Redox-active Tetrathiafulvalene-Carbohydrate Conjugates for Potential Biosensing Applications

Chad Fortin
Master of Science in Applied Ecology
Coadvisors: Christopher Raymond Webster and David James Flaspohler
Thesis title: Floristic Quality as a Potential Driver of Vegetative Diversity-Productivity Relationships and Arthropod Habitat in Restored Grasslands

Bryan Franklin
Master of Science in Computer Science
Advisor: Steven R Seidel
Thesis title: Analysis and Performance of a UPC Implementation of a Parallel Longest Common Subsequence Algorithm

Valerie Fuchs
Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Engineering
Coadvisors: John S Gierke and James R Mihelcic
Dissertation title: Nitrogen Removal and Sustainability of Vertical Flow Constructed Wetlands for Small Scale Wastewater Treatment

Alex Joseph Varghese
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Paul L Bergstrom
Thesis title: Fabrication of Piezo Resistive Strain Sensor for Orthopedic Fracture Implant System

Jodi Lehman
Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and Technical Communication
Advisor: Patricia J Sotirin
Dissertation title: International Teachers in the American Classroom: Deposing the Myth of Monolingualism

Ruben Otoniel Matias Gomez
Master of Science in Geology
Advisor: William I Rose
Thesis title: Volcanological Map of the 1961-2009 Eruption of Volcande Pacaya, Guatemala

Julian Mills-Beale
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Advisor: Zhanping You
Thesis title: New Test Procedures for Aggregate Specific Gravities and Absorption

Srichand Pendyala
Master of Science in Computer Science
Advisor: Robert Louis Pastel
Thesis title: Sketch Recognition through Shape Based Interaction

Ratul Saha
Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Sciences
Advisor: Susan T Bagley
Dissertation title: UV Disinfection of Metalworking Fluids: Analysis Using Molecular Tools

Steven Vormwald
Master of Science in Computer Science
Advisor: Steven M Carr
Thesis title: Predicting Remote Reuse Distance Patterns in Unified Parallel C Applications

Fuyu Xu
Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology
Advisor: Chandrashekhar Pralhad Joshi
Dissertation title: Molecular Mechanism of Cellulose Biosynthesis in Plants

Nominations open for the 2010 Distinguished Dissertation Award

Nominations are now closed for the 2010 competition.

Nominations are now open for the 2010 Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)/University Microfilms International (UMI) Distinguished Dissertation Award. This year, nominations are being accepted from dissertations in the fields of:

  1. mathematics, physical sciences, and engineering
  2. social sciences

Michigan Tech may nominate one student in each field. PhD students who have completed all of their degree requirements between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2010, are eligible.

A nomination packet must include the following:

  1. a completed nomination form.
  2. a 10-page abstract of the dissertation, double spaced on white letter-sized paper. (pdf preferred)
  3. optional: abstract appendices containing non-textual material such as charts, tables or figures. (pdf preferred)
  4. a letter of reference from the dissertation advisor.
  5. a letter of reference from a member of the nominee’s dissertation committee.
  6. a letter of reference from a person chosen by the nominee.

The letters of reference should address the significance and quality of the dissertation work.

Nominations should be delivered to Debra Charlesworth in the Graduate School no later than 4 p.m. on June 30.  Contact Debra (ddc@mtu.edu) if you have any questions about the competition.  See also the Council for Graduate School’s announcement page.

New Theses and Dissertations in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the arrival of new theses and dissertations from our recent graduates in the J. R. Van Pelt Library and John and Ruanne Opie Library.  The names of our graduates, their degrees, advisors, and titles of their research are listed below.

Himanshu Bahirat
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Bruce Mork
Thesis title: Transient Recovery Voltages in Shunt Capacitor Bank Installations

Shu Wei Goh
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Advisor: Zhanping You
Thesis title: Development of Specifications for the Superpave Simple Performance Tests

Nicholas Peterson
Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Michael C Roggemann
Thesis title: Pulse Polarization Radar for Determining Spatial and Material Information about a Target in Orbit

New Theses and Dissertations in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the arrival of new theses and dissertations from our recent graduates in the J. R. Van Pelt Library and John and Ruanne Opie Library.  The names of our graduates, their degrees, advisors, and titles of their research are listed below.

Joshua Carlson
Master of Science in Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Surendra K Kawatra
Thesis title: Effects of Particle Shape, Particle Size, Composition and Zeta Potential on Filtration at an Iron Ore Concentrator

James Diaz-Gonzalez
Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor: Gordon G Parker
Dissertation title: Closed Loop Docking with a Nearly Periodic Moving Target

Mark Griep
Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Advisor: Craig R Friedrich
Dissertation title: Quantum Dot / Optical Protein Bio-Nano Hybrid System Biosensing

Cameron Hartnell
Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
Advisor: Patrick E Martin
Dissertation title: Arctic Network Builders: The Arctic Coal Company’s Operations on Spitsbergen and its Relationship with the Environment

Jill Jensen
Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering
Advisor: David R Shonnard
Dissertation title: Cellulosic Ethanol: Optimization of Dilute Acid and Enzymatic Hydrolysis Processing of Forest Resources and Switchgrass

Parimal Kar
Doctor of Philosophy in Physics
Advisor: Ulrich Hans Ewald Hansmann
Dissertation title: Proteins in Silico-Modeling and Sampling

Robert Lothschutz
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Advisor: Jacob Eskel Hiller
Thesis title: Back-Calculation of Effective Built-In Temperature Difference in Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement

Lisa Rouse
Master of Science in Forest Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology
Advisor: Andrew J Burton
Thesis title: Early season ozone uptake is important for determining ozone tolerance in two trembling aspen clones

Tara Swanson
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Craig R Friedrich
Thesis title: Titanium Surface Morphologies and their Effect on Vancomycin Loading and Release Profiles for Orthopedic Applications

Xuexia Wang
Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematical Sciences
Advisor: Shuanglin Zhang
Dissertation title: Genetic Association Studies Considering LD Information and Genome-Wide Application

Wei Wang
Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Timothy J Schulz
Dissertation title: Estimation of the Degree of Polarization through Computational Sensing

Andrew Willemsen
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Mohan D Rao
Thesis title: Objective Metric for Assessing the Perceived Annoyance of Impulsive Sounds

Ziyou Zhou
Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Physics
Advisor: Miguel Levy
Dissertation title: Metal-Oxide Film and Photonic Structures for Integrated Device Applications

New theses and dissertations in the Library

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the arrival of new theses and dissertations in the Van Pelt and Opie Library.

Stephanie Groves
Master of Science in Biological Sciences
Advisor: Susan T Bagley
Thesis title: Optimization of Ethanol Production by Yeasts from Lignocellulosic Feedstocks

Juan Morinelly
Master of Science in Chemical Engineering
Advisor: David R Shonnard
Thesis title: Dilute Acid Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass from Forest Resources: Kinetic Characterization of Xylose Monomer and Oligomer Concentrations and Reactor Performance Mathematical Modeling

Madhana Sunder
Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor: Peter Dane Moran
Dissertation title: Growth of Heteroepitaxial Single Crystal Lead Magnesium Niobate-Lead Titanate Thin Films on R-Plane Sapphire Substrates

Andrew Waisanen
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering
Advisor: Jason R Blough
Thesis title: The Application of Experimental Transfer Path Analysis to the Identification of Vehicle Sensitivity to Tire Cavity Resonance

Peipei Zhao
Master of Science in Applied Natural Resource Economics
Advisor: Mark C Roberts
Thesis title: Duration and Co-Movement Analysis of Energy Price Cycles

Seminar (Jan 21): Submitting your thesis or dissertation to the Graduate School

Are you planning on finishing your thesis or dissertation spring or summer 2010?  Do you assist students submitting theses or dissertations?  If you answered yes to either of those questions, please join the Graduate School at our next seminar designed to help students, faculty, and staff better understand current procedures and have all of their questions answered.

Join Debra Charlesworth of the Graduate School for a description of online submission of a thesis or dissertation from start to finish. This seminar will be useful to students preparing their documents as well as faculty and staff who assist students.  The seminar will be January 21st at 4:00pm.

Please register for the event at our online registration site:

http://www.gradschool2.mtu.edu/registration/events/

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation with the location and a reminder of the date and time.  Space is limited, so register early!

If you are unable to join us, please see our online seminar presented on May 21st.  Please note that the forms “TD-Bindery” and “Life after Michigan Tech” that were described in the seminar are now combined into one form titled the “Degree Completion Form.”

Thesis and Dissertation Submission Seminar

Students planning on finishing a thesis or dissertation this semester or next semester are invited a seminar designed to help students understand current procedures, the new procedures, and answer student questions.

Join Debra Charlesworth on January 19th at 4:05pm to learn about the submission process from start to finish.

Faculty and staff who work with students completing a thesis or dissertation are also invited to attend.

Please register online for the event.

Once you register, you will receive a confirmation with the location and a reminder of the date and time. Space is limited, so register early!

If you are unable to join us, a taped version of this seminar is available online from our May 18th presentation.