Graduate School Announces Fellowship Recipients

The Texas Tech University Graduate School has announced the inaugural recipients of the Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship Program. Nearly 30 graduate students will receive funding during the 2014-15 academic year.

Designed to increase the completion rate of doctoral students and enhance recruitment of new students, the Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship Program provides funding that allows students to dedicate all their time to completing their dissertation during the upcoming academic year.

“The demand for doctoral degree holders is increasing because they drive innovation and creative endeavors in all fields,” said Mark Sheridan, vice provost for Graduate Affairs and dean of the Graduate School. “This fellowship program will enable Texas Tech to move doctoral degree recipients into the workforce more quickly to meet this demand and to contribute to the economic vitality of the region, the state and the nation.”

Participants were selected based on the quality of their research summary, credentials, likelihood of completing their dissertation within 12 months, quality of training environment and mentoring plan, and the impact of the award on increasing the number of doctoral students. Students were each endorsed by their department or program chairs.

The following students were selected for the program’s inaugural year:

• Ataollah Arvani, electrical engineering
• Roya Baghi, chemistry
• Cibele Caio, biology
• Carly Finseth, technical communication and rhetoric
• Zijian Gong, mass communications
• Saad Md Haider, electrical engineering
• Thomas Halverson, physics
• Yunli Hu, chemistry
• Chun-Chia Huang, biology
• Yuriko Ikeda, Spanish
• Michael Kanyi, agricultural education
• Andrew Keese, English literature
• Christine Kitano, English
• Amy Kuczynski, zoology
• Xun Liu, educational psychology
• Nathan Madsen, music
• Jena McCollum, mechanical engineering
• Nicte Ordonez-Garza, zoology
• Olga Pahom, English literature
• Austin Privett, chemistry
• Trideep Rajale, chemistry
• Benjamin Slate, theatre arts
• Jacob Stephens, electrical engineering
• Laura Elena Valentin-Rivera, Spanish
• Susana Villanueva Eguia Lis, Spanish
• William Wang, chemical engineering
• Heath Wing, Spanish
• Xin Zhang, chemical engineering
• Kun Zhang, industrial engineering