Ten former and current University of Texas at Austin engineering students received the coveted 2009 National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship, which grants each student more than $40,000 annually for three years. About 1,000 fellowships were awarded nationally.
Almost half of the engineering recipients are advised by mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Michael Webber, who leads the Webber Energy Group and is also associate director for the Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy at the university. Seven of the 10 winners are women.
Current graduate students receiving fellowships are: Carolina Mendez, Olga Paley, Ashlynn Stillwell, Kelly Twomey and Meagan Vaughan.
Mendez is a first-year graduate student in environmental engineering. Her research provides recommendations for the selection of roofing material for rainwater harvesting. To achieve this, she will use chemical and microbial analyses to thoroughly investigate which residential roofing materials yield the best water quality. Her advisor is Assistant Professor Mary Jo Kirisits and co-advisor is Associate Professor Kerry Kinney.
Paley, a second-year graduate student, is working toward her Ph.D. in chemical engineering; however, her field of study is biotechnology and protein engineering. Her research focuses on engineering enzymes that deplete the levels of certain amino acids to be used as potential cancer therapeutics. Paley currently is engineering an enzyme that breaks down methionine, the presence of which has been shown to be critical to tumor cell survival. Her advisor is Professor George Georgiou.
Stillwell is a second-year graduate student in environmental and water resources engineering and public affairs. Her current work examines the nexus of energy and water in Texas. Stillwell will quantify and qualitatively analyze the amount of water Texas uses for electricity generation and, conversely, the amount of electricity Texas uses for water and wastewater systems.
She also will expand that work to include biofuels, analyzing its water use and possible negative impacts on water quality. Stillwell is co-advised by Webber and Professor Desmond Lawler. She is a member of the Webber Energy Group and the Lawler Research Group.
Twomey is a first-year graduate student working in the thermal/fluid systems area of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Her research involves the energy-water nexus, specifically the energy and water quality consequences associated with biofuels production. Twomey also is a Webber Energy Group member.
Vaughan is a third-year graduate student studying mechanical engineering with a biomechanical concentration. Her research focuses on designing and implementing improved prosthetic components for lower limb amputees. Vaughan seeks to improve patient comfort by designing a customizable interface component in the socket between a patient’s limb and their prosthetic. She will design a socket using a manufacturing technology called “selective laser sintering” that “grows” with the patient as they grow older or as their weight changes. Vaughan is advised by Professor Richard Crawford.
After graduating from the university in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Aaron Townsend is returning to the Cockrell School as a first-year Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering. Townsend will be advised by Webber and join the Webber Energy Group.
Cockrell School alumni pursuing their master’s or doctorate degrees at peer universities include: Joseph Chen, Amanda Cuellar, Benjamin Hsia and Isis Trenchard.
Chen will attend the University of California, Berkeley to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering.
Cuellar, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s in chemical engineering and Plan II Honors, will defer admission to MIT and the fellowship for one year to continue to work with Webber at the university as part of the Webber Energy Group. Then in 2010, she will attend MIT to pursue her master’s in technology and policy in the Engineering Systems Division.
Hsia, who received a bachelor’s degree from the university, is pursuing his graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley in chemical engineering.
Trenchard is working toward her doctorate in bioengineering at Stanford University, focusing on metabolic engineering and synthetic biology.
