Carthage alumna receives Graduate Research Fellowship

Three other Carthage alumni receive honorable mention

Katie Stevens, '10, has been awarded a 2011 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is currently studying materials chemistry at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Her research project involves chemically modifying multifunctional silica nanoparticles to better target the delivery and release of pharmaceuticals. She graduated summa cum laude from Carthage with a degree in chemistry and minors in physics and music.

Katie Stevens

The NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship Program is highly competitive, awarding three-year grants that include a $30,000 annual stipend, a tuition allowance, travel funds, international research opportunities, and access to special computer resources.

"It's also a mark of distinction that they will always carry with them," said Carthage biology professor Dan Choffnes, campus liaison for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. "It's one of the highest pre-doctoral distinctions that the federal agencies offer," Prof. Choffnes said. "There are between 10,000 to 12,000 applicants throughout the sciences, and of those, only 10 to 20 percent are awarded the fellowships. The National Science Foundation is looking for the best of the best scientists to fund their careers."

Three other recent Carthage graduates received honorable mention. Dana Watt, '10, graduated summa cum laude with majors in neuroscience and biology, and is currently at Washington University. David Gemperline, '09, graduated summa cum laude with majors in chemistry and biology, and is now studying protein biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lauren (Zimmerman) Bischel, '09, graduated summa cum laude with majors in physics and mathematics, and is currently studying biomedical engineering at UW-Madison.

"It's exciting to have four Carthage alumni among this year's crop of NSF awardees and nominees," said Kevin Crosby, professor of physics and astronomy at Carthage and chair of the Division of Natural Sciences. "Katie was a great student — extremely dedicated and extremely hardworking," he said. "This award is all hers, but at the same time, I think it reminds us what a good job we do with our students."

Early exposure to undergraduate research

Ms. Stevens said her time at Carthage taught her to "think like a scientist," and led her both to graduate school and her current research. As a sophomore at Carthage, Ms. Stevens studied seasonal changes in chloride concentrations in the Pike River with chemistry professor Christine Blaine. "Because of that project, I was able to work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Great Lakes Water Initiative my junior year," on a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), she said. "That internship really gave me a broad picture of what chemistry could be."

The following year, her professors encouraged her to apply for an REU at Northwestern University, where she worked to develop and characterize new thermoelectric materials. "The research I did at Northwestern was solid state and inorganic chemistry, so it wasn't tied to what I'm doing now, but almost everyone I worked with in the program was working with some nanoparticle, and a lot of them had therapeutic applications," Ms. Stevens said. "It sparked my interest, even though I was working on another project at the time."

Ms. Stevens is now working at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with Professor Christy Haynes, exploring the biology-related applications of materials synthesis.

Prof. Crosby said Ms. Stevens' research path illustrates the College's goal in its science curriculum. "We push undergraduate research in the sciences in order to provide students with those first steps toward discovering their passion in science," he said. "That's why early exposure to undergraduate research is so important to us: It helps students open doors for themselves."

A community of scientists

Ms. Stevens said during a telephone interview that she has been "missing Carthage a lot lately. I think my favorite part was having a community within the Chemistry Department. I feel like I really developed a passion for chemistry. I was able to hang out with people who cared about the same things I did."

Carthage professors were among the first to congratulate Ms. Stevens on the fellowship. In fact, it was a former professor who first told her the good news. "Dr. [Erlan] Wheeler told me the news in a message on Facebook," she laughed. "I was checking my e-mail and was pretty amazed. ... It gives me a lot of encouragement. It helps me to be confident that I can do quality research, and write a proposal that people think is worth pursuing."

That's no surprise to Prof. Blaine, who remembers meeting Ms. Stevens when she visited Carthage as a high school student. Ms. Stevens was competing for a Math/Science Scholarship (which she later won). "She's just an awesome student," Prof. Blaine said. "Katie has the amazing gift of being able to communicate chemistry to various audiences. She is a natural teacher. Her mark on science will be her ability to not only perform excellent science but to teach future generations of scientists. She will be able to instill in others the passion to see the beauty in a chemical reaction."

Reflections

The following are excerpts from Ms. Stevens' personal statement on her application for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

• • •

"My first science class at Carthage was organic chemistry. I soon found out that I did not like chemistry — I loved it. I came out of every lecture elated, fundamentally happy, not because of some application that I had learned or some reason that chemistry proved useful, but because of all the reasons it proved beautiful."

• • •

"I also got to interact more with my professors, and several became my mentors. In particular, the Chemistry Department chair, Dr. Christine Blaine, spoke with me often. She surprised me because of her ability to be encouraging but challenging at the same time. ... She praised good work, but always asked for more and wouldn’t compromise her standards of excellence. She showed me that scientists have to have strength and endurance in order to achieve their goals, especially if those goals involve interactions and leadership outside of the research laboratory."

• • •

"The research experiences [I had at Carthage] also helped to reveal my intellectual passions. I enjoyed the lab work and the thought that went into each project, but I found that my real satisfaction came from communicating that work, both to scientists and people with little scientific background. I gave posters and presentations, and summarized to many friends what I had done, often having to make quick adjustments to the amount of detail and jargon I used depending on my audience. ... My joy and my skills lie in the communication of science."