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Three Nominated for Goldwater Scholarship
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FEBRUARY 27, 2004 -- Three undergraduate students have been selected by a university committee as nominees for the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for sophomores and juniors in science, math and engineering.
The federal award provides up to $7,500 per year and is intended to encourage undergraduate students to deepen their knowledge of their fields. Each nominee has begun to develop a research agenda and works closely with faculty at Michigan Tech. Winners of the nationwide competition will be announced in April.
Junior Nicholas Ballor (Chemical Engineering) plans to do research in biotechnology. He is working with Associate Professor Donald Lueking (Biological Sciences) on his research topic, "Utilization of an Extremophile as a Means of Ferric Iron Production." He hopes to reduce the price of ferric irons by using bacteria in catalysis. Ferric irons are used in many settings such as water treatment and bioremediation.
Junior Meghan McGee (Biomedical Engineering) is working with Assistant Professor Seth Donahue (Biomedical Engineering) and Assistant Professor Tammy Haut Donahue (MEEM) on her research topic, "The Effects of Annual Hibernation on the Mechanics and Histology of Black Bear Bones."
While at Michigan Tech, McGee has become fascinated with the dynamic structure of bone and the mechanisms by which it can adapt to physiological conditions. She hopes her work will contribute to cures for osteoporosis and osteoarthritis.
Environmental engineering sophomore Jessica Strane's Goldwater research topic is "Pollutant Transport Research." She is involved in two projects. In SFRES, she works with graduate student Jennifer Eikenberry and Research Assistant Professor Andy Burton on the effects of chronic atmospheric nitrogen deposition on soils and waters.
In the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, she works with PhD student Robert C. Owen and Professor Richard Honrath on the PICO International Chemical Observatory--North Atlantic Regional Experiment (PICO-NARE). The PICO-NARE project studies the transport of North American pollutants in large air masses over the Atlantic.
(The accopanying photo shows the set-up team at the PICO-NARE observatory.)
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