News Release

Local angles: Butler, Ga.; Chapel Hill; Dayton, Ohio; Gresham, Ore.; Huntsville, Ala.; Jacksonville; Los Altos, Calif.; Minsk, Belarus; Montpelier, Vt.; Sylmar, Calif.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Wellington, New Zealand.

CHAPEL HILL -- Fourteen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s top graduate students have been awarded 2005-2006 dissertation fellowships, which will provide financial support to them in their final year of doctoral study.

"The final year can be the most challenging year for doctoral students as they research and write their dissertations, so this is a time they truly need support," said Dr. Linda Dykstra, dean of UNC’s Graduate School. "Often, the rest of their careers focus on the topic of their dissertations, so the year of writing that dissertation is pivotal."

The dissertation fellows receive a one-year stipend of $18,000, in addition to coverage of tuition costs and fees and health insurance.

All of the dissertation fellowships are privately funded. Several were created as endowments during the Carolina First campaign. Carolina First is a comprehensive, multi-year, private fund-raising campaign to support Carolina’s vision of becoming the nation’s leading public university.

The newest named fellowship to the group is the John Motley Morehead Dissertation Fellowship, funded by the John Motley Morehead Foundation.

"We have some wonderful supporters of graduate education at Carolina who have contributed private funds to ensure that our best and brightest graduate students finish their time here at Carolina with high-quality research and on time," Dykstra said. "This helps poise Carolina graduates to compete for the best positions in the job market."

All UNC graduate programs nominate their best current students for the dissertation fellowships, and the nominations are sent to a selection committee made up of UNC faculty and staff. The selection committee then interviews the top candidates.

Dissertation fellows also are offered various interdisciplinary learning opportunities and professional development training throughout the academic year. The fellows also serve as graduate education "ambassadors," speaking with community groups about their research.

"These dissertation fellows give back to the university not only through their research endeavors, but also by going out into the community and sharing with the public the scope of graduate research, most of which has a direct impact on the economic and physical well-being of our state’s citizens," Dykstra said.

The dissertation fellows are:

· Sally Clendon, from Wellington, New Zealand, is studying speech and hearing sciences. She received the Thomas S. and Helen Borda Royster and Snowden and Elspeth Merck Henry Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "The Language of Beginning Writers: Implications for Students Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication."

· Connell Cunningham Jr., from Jacksonville, is studying chemistry. He received the Ross and Charlotte Johnson Family Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation is titled "Increasing Peptide Sequence Information from Tandem Mass Spectrometry in a Quadrupole Ion Trap."

· Lisa Davenport, from Los Altos, Calif., is studying biology. She received the Paul Hardin Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Behavioral Ecology of the Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) in Oxbow Lakes of the Rio Manu (Peru)."

· David Davis, from Butler, Ga., is studying English. He received the Georgia Carroll Kyser Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation is titled "World War I, Literary Modernism and the U.S. South."

· Andrew Flory, from Dayton, Ohio, is studying music. He received the John Motley Morehead Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation is titled "I Hear a Symphony: Making Music at Motown from 1959 to 1979."

· Christine Kaestle, from Chapel Hill, is studying maternal and child health. She received the Jessie Ball duPont Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Age at First Intercourse and the Sexual Health of Young Adults."

· Patricia L. Kohl, from Chapel Hill, is studying social work. She received the Lovick P. Corn Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Child Welfare Agency Response to Domestic Violence Among Families Investigated for Child Maltreatment: A Multi-Level Analysis of Safety Following Child Welfare Involvement."

· Joette Russell, from Huntsville, Ala., is studying chemistry. She received the Carol and Edward Smithwick Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Novel Alignment Materials for Use in Liquid Crystal Display Devices."

· Lindsey Smith, from Tulsa, Okla., is studying English. She received the Sequoyah Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Multicultural Savage: Indians, Environment and Identity on the Borders of American Literature."

· Josh Steinhurst, from Montpelier, Vt., is studying computer science. He received the Paul Hardin Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation is titled "Practical Photon Mapping in Hardware."

· Jennifer A. Taylor, from Sylmar, Calif., is studying biology. She received the Sequoyah Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Hydrostatic Skeletons in the Crustacea: Support During Molting in an Aquatic and a Terrestrial Crab."

· Eileen M. Vandenburgh, from Chapel Hill, is studying ecology. She received the Lovick P. Corn Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Are Part-Time Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Effective for Fisheries Management?: Development of Biological and Social Theories Crucial to Designing MPAs for the Real World."

· Celeste Yeates, from Gresham, Ore., is studying physics. She received the Linda Dykstra Science Dissertation Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled "Mode Identification from Combination Frequency Amplitudes in ZZ Ceti Stars."

· Yaraslau Zayats, from Minsk, Belarus, is studying economics. He received the Jessie Ball duPont Dissertation Fellowship. His dissertation is titled "Schooling, Wages and the Role of Unobserved Ability: the Case of Cebu."

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Graduate School contact: Deborah Makemson, (919) 843-3494 or makemson@email.unc.edu