Virginia Tech College of Engineering major, two alumni, named as NSF Fellows


Blacksburg, VA , May 06, 2009

National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded graduate study fellowships to a senior and two recent alumni of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. Each fellowship provides three years of funding, including a tuition supplement and a stipend of $30,000 per year.

The winning senior is Alek Duerksen from Waynesboro, Va., who is majoring in mining and minerals engineering (MINE). In addition to the fellowship, Duerksen also recently was named the 2008-2009 Outstanding Standing Senior for the College of Engineering and was part of a national award winning team at a student mining competition from Virginia Tech.

Duerksen has two minors, English, at the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and geosciences, at the College of Science. He plans to stay at Virginia Tech to pursue a master’s degree in MINE. “The NSF Fellowship is as good as it gets for graduate students, and I know how extraordinarily competitive the awards are,” said Richard Benson, dean of the College of Engineering.

The winning alumni are:

  • Elizabeth Traut, a May 2008 graduate from the mechanical engineering (ME) department. The Vienna, Va., resident is now at Carnegie-Mellon University in the direct doctoral ME program.
  • Sherri Cook, a graduate of the Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering also was named as the 2007-2008 College of Engineering’s Outstanding Senior . She is now a master’s student at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

NSF graduate fellows are selected on academic merit, proven ability to conduct research and future academic and research goals.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college’s 5,700 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a “hands-on, minds-on” approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 1,800 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation and the world.

Steven Mackay
smackay@vt.edu
(540) 231-4787