Graduate Student Awards and Fellowships

This award is given for cumulative research excellence by a graduate student in the MSE Department. It seeks to recognize truly meritorious research efforts by our graduate students, such as conducting particularly challenging experiments, developing and using significant new computer models and/or simulations, or publishing and/or patenting significantly. Both MS and Ph.D students are eligible for this award.

Past Recipients:

• 2008: Baris Unal (Major Professor: Patricia Thiel)
• 2007: Sergiy Peleshanko (Major Professor: Vladimir Tsukruk)
  Hang Yan Yuen (Major Professor: Steve Martin)
• 2005: Beth Rybak (Major Professor: Vladimir Tsukruk)
• 2004: Bora Mavis (Major Professor: Mufit Akinc)

This award is given for the best MSE graduate student paper. To qualify for this award, a paper must be published or accepted for publication in a peer reviewed journal, and must describe research performed as a part of the student’s graduate thesis work.

Past Recipients:

• 2016: Xiaoming Liu (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2014: Hangzheng Guo (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2013: Liwen Wan (Major Professor: Scott Beckman)
• 2012: Joel Reiken (Major Professor: Iver Anderson)
• 2011: Cheng Ma (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2010: Myunghwan Byun (Major Professor: Zhiqun Lin)
• 2009: Min Zou (Major Professors: Vitalij Pecharsky and Karl Gschneidner)
• 2008: Xiaohui Zhao (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2007: Jun Xu (Major Professor: Zhiqun Lin)

This award recognizes excellence in doctoral research at Iowa State University. Each year, the two winners selected for this award become Iowa State’s nominees to the Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International Distinguished Dissertation Award. Awards are selected annually in two of four rotating broad disciplinary areas: Humanities and the Fine Arts, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences. More information on this award can be found here.

This award recognizes superior performance in publishable research by an Iowa State University graduate student. Publishable research is defined as work written and accepted for publication in a national or international refereed journal. This award takes into consideration both the quality and the number of publications produced during the student’s time at Iowa State. More information on this award can be found here.

MSE Past Recipients:

• 2015: Hangzheng Guo (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2010: Jun Wang, honorable mention (Major Professor: Zhiqun Lin)
• 2008: Baris Unal, honorable mention (Major Professor: Patricia Thiel)
• 2007: Sergiy Peleshanko (Major Professor: Vladimir Tsukruk)
• 2006: Kirsten Genson (Major Professor: Vladimir Tsukruk)

This award recognizes truly meritorious research efforts by graduate students and recognizes achievements as documented in their theses and dissertations. Recipients are recognized for their academic performance and their ability to not only do research, but for their ability to develop a well-written product.

MSE Past Recipients:

• 2016: Honghu Zhang (Major Professor: Mufit Akinc)
• 2016: Jiahao Chen (Major Professor: Major Professor: Martin Thuo)
• 2016: Stephanie Oyola-Reynoso (Major Professor: Martin Thuo)
• 2016: Hakan Yavas (Major Professor: Richard LeSar)
  Stephanie Choquette (Major Professor: Iver Anderson)
• 2015: Hannah Bygd (Major Professor: Kaitlin Bratlie)
  Xiaoming Liu (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
• 2014: Jing Liu (Major Professors: Vitalij Pecharsky and Karl Gschneidner)
  Daniel Vennerberg (Major Professor: Michael Kessler)
  Hanzheng Guo (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
  Ihor Hlova (Major Professor: Vitalij Pecharsky)
• 2013: Liwen Wan (Major Professor: Scott Beckman)
  Xiao Wang (Major Professor: Wei Hong)
• 2012: Prasanna Balachandran (Major Professor: Krishna Rajan)
  Cheng Ma (Major Professor: Xiaoli Tan)
  Wei Han (Major Professor: Zhiqun Lin)
• 2011: Caizhi Zhou (Major Professor: Richard LeSar)
  Pratik Ray (Major Professor: Mufit Akinc)
• 2010: Jun Wang (Major Professor: Zhiqun Lin)
  Melissa Ver Meer (Major Professor: Ralph Napolitano)
• 2009: Xia Sheng (Major Professors: Michael Kessler and Mufit Akinc)
  Yunus Eren Kalay (Major Professors: Scott Chumbley and Iver Anderson)
• 2007: Sergiy Peleshanko (Major Professor: Vladimir Tsukruk)
• 2006: Ozan Ugurlu (Major Professor: Scott Chumbley)
• 2005: Seymen Aygun (Major Professor: David Cann)

This award recognizes and encourages outstanding achievement by graduate students in teaching. Any graduate student with teaching responsibilities and who has been on a teaching appointment for at least two terms is eligible for this award.

MSE Past Recipients:

• 2016: Darrel Enyart
• 2016: Chris Celania

The Miller Graduate Fellowship is an annual program competition to recruit highly talented Ph.D. candidates. The goal of the program is to increase the number of graduate, professional, and research programs that are among the very best, especially in those areas that build upon the university’s strengths and address local and global critical needs. This program allows departments to put together the best financial packages to recruit highly qualified students to Iowa State. The awards are two to three years in duration and recipients can be either domestic or international students. More information on this fellowship can be found here.

MSE Past Recipients:

• FY16: Melinda Hoyt (Major Professor: Steve Martin)
• FY15: Matt Rolchigo (Major Professor: Richard LeSar)

This program offers financial assistance to U.S. citizens who are members of ethnic groups historically underrepresented in American higher education. Each department makes requests on behalf of students to be considered for GMAP funds. Students must be admitted into a degree-seeking masters or Ph.D programs in full or under provisional status. More information can be found here.

MSE Past Recipients:

• 2014: Stephanie Oyola-Reynoso (Major Professor: Martin Thuo)

This program was established to significantly increase the number of underrepresented minorities obtaining graduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs. AGEP works to enhance the preparation of underrepresented minorities for entry into the professoriate. Each department makes requests on behalf of students to be considered for AGEP funds. Students must be admitted in full to a Ph.D. program in a STEM field and be U.S. citizens (permanent residents are ineligible). Students must be enrolled as a first semester Ph.D. student upon receiving AGEP funds. Students will receive funds for five years from the term of entry. More information can be found here.

MSE Past Recipients:

• 2012: Deborah Watson (Major Professor: Steve Martin)