Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded To Caruthers and Watzman

For the sixth consecutive year, students within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering have been notified that they are to be recipients of Graduate Research Fellowships funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Elena Caruthers, a current ME graduate student, and Sarah Watzman, an Ohio State senior who will enter graduate school this fall, were named to the list of 2013 NSF Fellows. In addition, ME graduate student Justin Scheidler also received an honorable mention in the annual fellowship award program

Caruthers is advised by Assistant Professor Robert Siston. Her research, largely conducted in Siston's Neuromusclar Biomechanics Lab, focuses on evaluating the role of quadricep muscles before and after total knee replacement in people with osteoarthritis to aid in improving patient-specific rehabilitation programs as well as surgical procedures. 

Watzman will be advised by Professor Joseph Heremans. Her recent undergraduate research focused on designing, building, and testing a solar thermoelectric generator. Her graduate research, which will be conducted in Heremans' Thermal NanoMaterials Lab, will either be in thermoelectric materials or spin-Seebeck materials.

The NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity.  The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions.  The NSF welcomes applications from all qualified students and strongly encourages under-represented populations, including women, under-represented racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, to apply for this fellowship.

For more information, please visit http://www.nsfgrfp.org/.