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Two Dartmouth graduate programs have won highly competitive awards from the
U.S. Department of Education to
support graduate training in chemistry and in an interdisciplinary program in
nanotechnology and health sciences involving faculty from the arts and
sciences, medicine, and engineering.
The awards were made under the Graduate Assistance in Areas
of National Need (GAANN) program, which provides highly competitive
graduate stipends and programmatic funding to support graduate training. GAANN
programs provide fellowships through academic departments and programs to
colleges and universities around the country to assist graduate students with
excellent academic credentials who demonstrate financial need, and who plan to
pursue the highest degree available in designated fields of national need.
GAANN fellowship recipients are paid up to a $30,000 stipend and Dartmouth
receives additional funding to cover the costs of the fellow's tuition. The
GAANN for chemistry will support five fellowships each year for three years and
the GAANN in nanomedicine will support four fellowships each year for three
years.
The latest grants bring to five the number of Dartmouth graduate programs
that have received these national awards; the mathematics, physics and astronomy, and biology departments received them
in 2004. Dartmouth will receive a total of more than $3 million to increase the
competitiveness and success of those five programs, and about 20 students will
be supported with fellowships each year.
"This GAANN Fellowship award will allow us to recruit, acknowledge, and
reward additional outstanding chemistry graduate students, while contributing
to areas of scientific inquiry of particular importance to the nation,"
says John Winn,
chair of the chemistry
department. "The competition for these awards is very strong, and we were
pleased that Dartmouth's chemistry graduate program was judged to be among the
best."
The Nanotechnology in Health Sciences training program is a collaborative
effort among faculty in Dartmouth's arts and sciences departments
with faculty in Dartmouth Medical
School and Thayer
School of Engineering. Associate Professor of Engineering and Program
Director Ursula
Gibson seeks to train students at the interface of fundamental science and
medical applications of nanostructured materials. "This award recognizes
the important advances that we are poised to make at the intersection between
engineering and medicine," she says.
"Having support from the U.S. Department of Education has had a very
positive impact on Dartmouth's graduate programs by increasing the strength and
diversity of incoming students as well as enhancing training opportunities
available to our current students," says Dean of Graduate Studies Charles Barlowe. "I
am especially pleased to see the U.S. Department of Education recognize
interdisciplinary research areas that so often thrive in Dartmouth's academic
community."
Graduate students who receive GAANN fellowships participate in workshops and
attend lectures to promote their academic careers. Hailey Webber, a GAANN
fellowship recipient in biology, used the funding to attend a scientific
meeting in Spain and present her work to an international audience. She says,
"The fellowship increased my confidence and made me more comfortable with
my decision to pursue a career in biology. "
By ROLAND ADAMS
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