Academics

      Thirteen graduate students receive the Alumni Association Dissertation Award

      Pictured are, standing on the left: Neil Sharkey, interim vice president for research, and Kay Salvino, president of the Penn State Alumni Association, and on the far right: Regina Vasilatos-Younken, interim dean of the Graduate School, and Roger Williams, executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association, with graduate students who received the Alumni Association Dissertation Award. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

      Thirteen graduate students received the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award this spring in recognition of their outstanding achievement in scholarship and professional accomplishments. This award, considered to be among the most prestigious available to Penn State graduate students, provides funding to full-time doctoral students who have passed their comprehensive exams and have received approval of their dissertation topics, or to master of fine arts students in their final year.

      Award recipients and their programs of study are Md Tarekul Alam, mechanical engineering; Shan Gao, physics; Kristal L. Jones, rural sociology; Sophia G. Khadraoui, French; Pierette M. Kulpa, art history; Chun Kit Kwok, chemistry; Daniel T. Ragan, sociology; Scott Salesky, meteorology; Katherine A. Sauder, biobehavioral health; Xiaowei W. Su, molecular medicine; Lindsey N. Swierk, ecology; Matthew C. Wilson, political science; and Yanhui Zhao, engineering science and mechanics.

      Each student received a $5,000 award and was recognized at the Graduate School Alumni Society's Recognition Program on April 5. Funds for these awards were made possible by a gift from the Penn State Alumni Association.

      More information about the Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award is available on the Graduate School's website.

      Last Updated April 15, 2014

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