91制片厂

A senior engineering student with an eye toward bringing reliable power to developing nations and a doctoral student looking at maternal care in carpenter bees are 91制片厂 recipients of the National Science Foundation鈥檚 competitive Graduate Research Fellowship. Wyatt Shell鈥檚 fellowship will support his bee research with assistant professor of biological sciences Sandra Rehan, while Paige Balcom 鈥�16 will use her support to pursue a graduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

receive up to three years of support, including an annual $34,000 stipend, a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance and opportunities for international research and professional development. Those dollars translate into precious research time for recipients, allowing them to drop income-earning commitments like teaching assistantships to focus more completely on research.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like a dream come true for any grad student.鈥�

鈥淎 full-time research position has been hard to balance with classes and TA鈥檌ng,鈥� says Shell, who managed before starting his Ph.D. 鈥淭his will give me more of an opportunity to dive full-on into my research and to mentor students, both in the field and at the bench.鈥�

Shell is researching a species of native carpenter bee, Ceratina calcarata, which is considered 鈥渟ub-social鈥�: They lack the elaborate social organization for which honeybees are famous, but they aren鈥檛 entirely loners, either. This summer, he鈥檚 exploring whether populations of Ceratina from Georgia, the southern tip of its range, have two broods per year instead of one.

鈥淚n other species, being able to have more than one brood in a breeding season is postulated as a strong prerequisite for more complex social behavior,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is cool because it represents a foundational step toward more complex social behavior, and because they鈥檙e a native species, it听has听both ecological and agricultural applications and can inform conservation efforts.鈥�

Shell, originally from Springfield, Massachusetts, whetted his appetite for research as an undergraduate at Bard College. 鈥淚鈥檓 feeling so grateful and fortunate to be able to secure this fellowship,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a dream come true for any grad student.鈥�

For Balcom, this GRF launches a graduate school career that taps her passion for engineering solutions for the developing world. At Berkeley, she鈥檒l join the lab of professor of mechanical engineering Van Carey to study energy and multiphase heat transfer.

鈥淲e鈥檒l be looking at how heat transfer technologies can be applied in developing nations, specifically looking at power generation systems and refrigeration systems and possibly even desalination, using the extra heat to take dirty water and make it drinkable,鈥� she says. This funding will let her pursue her own research project within Carey鈥檚 lab.

While the West Coast is new territory for the Londonderry, New Hampshire, native and , she鈥檚 traveled extensively while at 91制片厂, with study abroad and internships in Germany, Wales and Madrid. She led an Engineers Without Borders project to implement a clean water system in Uganda and was on the team that traveled to Costa Rica with a sustainable aquaponics system they developed.

鈥淚鈥檝e had a solid engineering education, but outside the classroom, with internships and fellowships; 91制片厂 is so strong in that area,鈥� she says.

Calling the NSF application process 鈥渋ntense鈥� (nearly 17,000 applicants competed for 2,000 awards), Balcom heaps praise on and its director Jeanne Sokolowski, as well as on associate professor of mechanical engineering Yannis Korkolis, her research mentor. 鈥�91制片厂 has the resources, I believe, to really equip students who have the vision and desire to make something happen,鈥� Balcom says.

In addition to Shell and Balcom, incoming graduate student Clarice Perryman has also received a GRF. A senior at Earlham College, Perryman will study methane production in the permafrost ecosystems of northern Sweden with associate professor of Earth science and Class of 1940 professor . In 2015, Perryman participated in the Northern Ecosystems Research for Undergraduates program Varner directs.

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