During their time at K-State, graduate students not only receive education and training to advance their knowledge and pursue professional goals, but they also make significant contributions to the university’s research, teaching, mentoring, and service enterprises. Their contributions and accomplishments are recognized with scholarships, fellowships, and awards throughout the year. Here, we highlight some of these accomplishments.
University Distinguished Professors recognize three doctoral candidates for excellence in research
Exceptional achievement in doctoral studies is recognized annually with an award presented by K-State’s University Distinguished Professors. The 2021-2022 award recipients are Dryden Baumfalk, Alisa Pajser, and Tahmineh Azizi.
Alisa Pajser, doctoral candidate in psychology from Des Moines, Iowa, received a $5,000 award to support her research on fear suppression involved in an animal model of delayed-onset post-traumatic stress disorder. This line of work could lead to new methods of detection for delayed-onset PTSD in human patients as well as possible treatments for anxiety disorders in general. View a brief video summary of Pajser’s research.
Tahmineh Azizi, 2021 doctoral graduate in mathematics from Iran received a $2,500 award to support her research, which involves developing computer and mathematical tools and models to predict the distribution and effectiveness of potential anti-cancer drugs and therapeutic nanomaterials in animals and humans. View a brief video summary of Azizi’s research.
Dryden Baumfalk, 2022 doctoral graduate in human ecology specializing in kinesiology from Colby, KS, received a $2,500 award to support his research, which suggests that exercise has the potential to diminish cardiac atrophy and fatigue, and favorably augment the prostate tumor microenvironment to improve radiation therapy outcomes. View a brief video summary of Baumfalk’s research.
Graduate students in sociology and modern languages recognized for outstanding teaching
Each fall, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) recognizes one master’s and one doctoral student who have excelled in classroom teaching with the GSC Award for Graduate Student Teaching Excellence.
The 2021 award recipients were Andrea Fernanda Ramírez Tello, master’s student in modern languages from Mexico City, Mexico and Trina Knight, doctoral candidate in sociology, from Hastings, Nebraska. Each received a $500 scholarship and are recognized on a perpetual plaque displayed in their departments. The award promotes the important contributions graduate students make to the scholarship of the university.
Ramírez Tello and Knight also served as as K-State’s nominees for the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, or MAGS, Excellence in Teaching Award. Ramírez Tello was selected for honorable mention in the master’s student award competition.
$17,600 Sarachek Fellowship and two travel grants awarded to doctoral students
Jun Huang, doctoral candidate in plant pathology from Fujian, China, is the 2022 recipient of the $17,600 Alvin and RosaLee Sarachek Predoctoral Honors Fellowship in Molecular Biology. Upon earning his doctorate, Huang plans to continue studying fungi to reduce or control fungal diseases affecting plants and humans. He will use the Sarachek Fellowship to support the start of his postdoctoral research and to gain more training in molecular microbiology and bioinformatics analysis.
In addition to the fellowship, two $1,000 travel awards were presented to, Joel Steyer, doctoral candidate in genetics from Lenexa, KS and Alexis Carpenter, doctoral candidate in biology from Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
Alvin and RosaLee Sarachek established the fellowship and travel awards to recognize K-State doctoral students who have demonstrated exceptional research and scholastic accomplishments. Read the full news release recognizing these award recipients.
Nearly 180 graduate students recognized in annual reception
The accomplishments highlighted above are just a small sample of the outstanding work and contributions made by K-State graduate students. These and others were celebrated at the Graduate Student Awards and Recognition Reception in April. Nearly 180 graduate students were recognized for achievements at department, college, and university levels, as well as external recognitions in their field of study. View the 2022-Grad-Awards-Recognition-Program for a list of all students who were recognized for the 2021-2022 academic year.