Summer Doctoral Fellowships Announced

Thirteen students were awarded the Summer Doctoral Fellowships for Summer 2010. Each of the students is currently pursuing their doctorate and will use the fellowship to further advance their research and dissertation. They will receive a stipend and a waiver of tuition. In no particular order, they are listed here with their graduate program:

Kenneth Carbarle,  Biology
Gunjan Dhawan, Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics
Laurel Grisanti, Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics
Liang Hui, Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics
lore m. dickey, Counseling Psychology
Carrie Gieble, Counseling Psychology
Kimberley Jorgensen, Counseling Psychology
Kathryn Hintz, Teaching & Learning
Charlotte Klesman, Communication
Pratibha Kumar, Communication
Risa Madoff, Geology
Prasanna Seshadri, Engineering
Michael Dennis Sisk, Engineering

Congratulations to all of our fellowship recipients. We look forward to learning more about each student’s research endeavors over the summer.

2010 Summer Research Professorships announced

This past week The Graduate School announced the 8 faculty recipients of the 2010 Summer Research Professorships. We are excited to share this information with our readers.

• Dr. Wayne Barkhouse, Department of Physics and Astrophysics – Properties of Infalling Cluster Galaxies with Enhanced Star Formation.
• Dr. Jerome Delhommelle, Department of Chemistry – Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying crystallization processes.
• Dr. Reza Fazel-Rezai, Department of Electrical Engineering – Brain Signal (EEG) Processing and Characterization
• Dr. Krista Lynn Minnotte, Department of Sociology – A Cross-Societal Ananlysis of the Impact of the Family-Friendly Policies on National Divorce Rates.
• Dr. Sima Noghanian, Department of Electrical Engineering – Microwave Tomography Method for Biomedical Imaging Application.
• Dr. Karyn Plum, Department of Psychology – (1) Mock juror perceptions of bias-motivated crimes based on race (Native American), (2) Mock juror attributions of blame and responsibility in criminal offenses committed by persons with mental illness.
• Dr Jeffrey Weatherly, Department of Psychology – Delay Discounting: American Indians, Gambling, and Different Commodities.
• Dr. Yanjun Zuo, Department of Information Systems and Business Education – Privacy-preserving Ubiquitous Computing: Methodology and Techniques.

Each of the faculty members will also have the support of a graduate student who will assist in their research. Congratulations to each of our Summer Professors, and we wish you well in your research projects. Perhaps will can ask a couple of the recipients and/or their graduate assistant to share their reflections at the end of the summer?

New funding opportunities for Ph.D. students

The Graduate School announced this week that is has funding available for conference travel and research for UND Ph.D. students. These grants are made possible through the Doctoral Initiative Program, a State-funded program designed to support and promote doctoral education in North Dakota.

For more information, students can find the forms on our web site or in this week’s listserv announcement.

Our State Board of Higher Education approves doctoral incentive funding

North Dakota’s State Board of Higher Education met on the University of North Dakota’s campus last week. In a day long meeting that was open to the campus community, many agenda items were discussed. Among them was the approval of the biennial funding for the Doctoral Program, one of three education incentive projects designed to support programs and students at the doctoral level. Since 2001, the North Dakota Legislature has approved funds for UND and NDSU that are used to recruit students, market programs and support research. While our two institutions use these funds with different emphases, the recent increase in graduate enrollment at both campuses indicates the success of the initiative for the state’s two largest institutions.

UND will use the allocated funds to enhance doctoral dissertation grants, provide professional development for doctoral students and continue to recruit the best students to our highest degree.