Friday, April 9, 2010
Four University of Saskatchewan Ph.D. students working together on materials science projects at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) have been awarded a total of $252,000 in scholarships - part of $1.08 million in federal scholarship funding for U of S students announced today in Montreal.
It's a source of pride for professors to see even one of their students receive such prestigious scholarships, says the students' supervisor and Canada Research Chair Alexander Moewes. "But it is unbelievable to see four of my students get it at the same time.".
He said the scholarships awarded to John McLoed, Robert Green, Teak Boyko, and Adrian Hunt testify to the "outstanding quality of these students on a national level." He noted that the value of his students' work is integral to his own success, adding "I can only be as successful as my graduate students."
The four, who will each receive $63,000 over three years, are among 36 students currently at the U of S who will receive post-graduate (master's or Ph.D.) scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). The scholarships can be applied to the U of S or to other institutions.
"This year 80 per cent of the 45 students that we were entitled to put forward through a federal quota system for scholarships were successful in this national competition," said Lawrence Martz, U of S dean of graduate studies. "This is a reflection of the high-calibre students that U of S trains and it bodes well for the prospects of our graduates in research and professional careers."
The four physics Ph.D. students are part of Moewes' eight-member "BeamTeam" - a materials research group which specializes in studying the electronic structure of new and advanced materials using synchrotron light to understand their properties and how they interact, bond and behave. The beamteam publishes 12 to 15 scholarly papers on their findings per year.
The group currently travels back and forth between the CLS on the U of S campus and a synchrotron at Berkeley, California, but will shift its research exclusively to the CLS when Moewes' beamline becomes operational this year.
Not only will the NSERC funding enable them to continue their research, but it will make it possible for them to attend conferences where they can present their results and learn about new developments in the field, said Green, adding “We are trying to discover important things about nature that nobody knows yet.”
The four student projects are:
To learn more about work being done by the UofS beamteam, visit http://beamteam.usask.ca/index.php Watch "Hard Driving Science," a UofS video that looks at Moewes’ work at the CLS: http://www.usask.ca/research/communications/multimedia/videos.php
For a complete list of UofS and other scholarship winners from the $122-million national NSERC scholarship announcement, visit: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PD-NP/PDF-BP_eng.asp and http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Students-Etudiants/PG-CS/BellandPostgrad-BelletSuperieures_eng.asp
Also announced today were 56 UofS researcher grants totaling more than $1.7 million under the NSERC Discovery Grant program. Details are available at: http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Professors-Professeurs/Grants-Subs/DGIGP-PSIGP_eng.asp For more information or to request a photo of the beamteam, contact: Kathryn Warden UofS Research Communications (306) 966-2506
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