On Feb. 15, a three-minute timer loomed over 33 graduate students competing for a spot in the new Vice President for Research Fellowship.
The fellows will receive up to $4,000 in scholarship and travel support as well as opportunities to participate in professional development workshops, mentorship, leadership and engagement opportunities over the 2016-17 academic year.
As students quickly summarized their research, judges scored on criteria associated with the content and comprehension of the presentation, as well as students’ effective engagement and communication skills. They also ranked the students on their potential for contribution to the fellows program.
“The challenge event epitomizes why we, as faculty and educators, come to work every day – CSU students are incredibly talented and dedicated, and it is a privilege to be a witness to their success,” said Ellen Fisher, senior faculty advisor to the Office of the Vice President for Research and lead coordinator of the new program. “Every one of the graduate students who participated has already demonstrated immense passion and an ability to put themselves out there. They are all winners.”
This new initiative was created by the Office of the Vice President for Research to support excellence in graduate research and scholarly works and to promote cross-college and cross-department collaborations. Participants were chosen from the CSU Graduate School’s Graduate Student Showcase and nominated by their colleges.
“Our goals for the VPR Fellows program are to provide a transformative leadership experience and to help prepare the next generation of diverse, innovative creators for the next stage of their careers in the global marketplace,” said Alan Rudolph, vice president for research. “We hope this will become a flagship program for the entire university.”
The Inaugural VPR Fellowship Cohort:
Alexandra Blevins, VPR Fellow representing the College of Agricultural Sciences
3 Minute Presentation: The Mysterious Life inside a Cow Pie: Can Dung Beetles Affect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Cattle Dung?
Hailey Conover, VPR Fellow representing the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the Cell and Molecular Biology Program
3 Minute Presentation: Missing 50 percent: Copy Number Variation in Human Disease
Kristen Davenport, VPR Fellow representing the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
3 Minute Presentation: The Case of Misbehaving Proteins
Stacy Endriss, VPR Fellow representing the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
3 Minute Presentation: Plants and Insects: A Toxic Relationship
Robert Griffin-Nolan, VPR Fellow representing the College of Natural Sciences and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
3 Minute Presentation: When Grasses Succumb to Drought: A Plant Physiological Approach to Understanding Grassland Carbon Uptake During Drought
Ava Hoffman, VPR Fellow representing the College of Natural Sciences and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology
3 Minute Presentation: Breaking Down the Drought Portfolio in Grasslands
Nabila Huq, VPR Fellow representing the College of Engineering
3 Minute Presentation: Shedding Light on Lower Back Pain
Maggie Jones, VPR Fellow representing the College of Liberal Arts
3 Minute Presentation: A Decade of Dysfunction: Mismanagement of Sacred Spaces at Effigy Mounds National Monument”
Dustin Lee, VPR Fellow representing the College of Health and Human Sciences
3 Minute Presentation: Let Food be Your Medicine: Fuzhuan Tea and Heart Disease
Mei-heng Lin, VPR Fellow representing the College of Health and Human Sciences
3 Minute Presentation: Modeling the Neural and Behavioral Inter-relationship of Error Monitoring
Hannah Love, VPR Fellow representing the College of Liberal Arts
3 Minute Presentation: Formula for Long-Term Learning
Lauren Radakovich, VPR Fellow representing the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
3 Minute Presentation: Elucidating the Role of Iron Dysregulation in the Development of Knee Arthritis in Obesity
