Stony Brook University Student Wins 2010 Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Prize
With the Goldhaber Award winner Johanna Nelson (second from left), are (from left) her advisor, Chris Jacobsen, Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University; Anne Sickles, a former Goldhaber Award winner who is currently an assistant scientist at Brookhaven Lab’s Physics Department; and Linda Bowerman, Brookhaven Women in Science.
Johanna Nelson, a Stony Brook University (SBU) graduate student, has been awarded the 2010 Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber Prize, consisting of a framed certificate and $1,000. Currently funded by Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that manages Brookhaven National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, the award was established in 1992 by Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS), a nonprofit organization that supports and encourages the advancement of women in science.
The award recognizes substantial promise and accomplishment by women graduate students in physics who are performing their thesis research at Brookhaven Lab, or who are enrolled at Stony Brook University. It commemorates the outstanding contributions of the late nuclear physicist Gertrude Scharff-Goldhaber. In 1950, she became the first woman Ph.D. physicist appointed to the Brookhaven Lab staff. She also was a founding member of BWIS.
Nelson earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 2005, and she expects to earn a Ph.D. in physics from SBU in August of this year. Her research involves viewing the sub-cellular structure of cells, such as yeast cells, on the nano-scale using an imaging technique called x-ray diffraction microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Advanced Light Source. Nelson will continue in this field of basic research with a postdoctoral position at Stanford University.
Written by Diane Greenberg, The Bulletin
Winner of the Renate W. Chasman Scholarship for Women
Joanna Laroussi, a graduate student in geography at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Hunter College, and Jamina Oomen-Hajagos, a graduate student studying genetics at StonyBrook University (SBU), have been awarded the 2010 Renate W. Chasman Scholarship for Women. Brookhaven Women in Science (BWIS), a not-for-profit organization at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, offers the scholarship to qualified candidates annually to encourage women to pursue careers in science, engineering, or mathematics.
Loralie Smart, Brookhaven Women in Science board member (left) and Martin Blume, Senior Scientist Emeritus and former Deputy Director at Brookhaven Lab, display Chasman Scholarship certificates with 2010 scholarship winners Joanna Laroussi (second from left) and Jamina Oomen-Hajagos.
“These two candidates were both exceptional students with excellent qualifications, so this year, we are granting two scholarships rather than the usual one,” said Loralie Smart, a BWIS executive board member who coordinates the scholarship program.
Named after the late Renate Chasman, a renowned physicist who worked at Brookhaven Lab, the $2,000 scholarship is awarded each year to a re-entry woman — one whose college education was interrupted, but who has returned to pursue a degree on a half time or greater basis. For the first time, SBU is providing matching funds for students enrolled in its programs, so Oomen-Hajagos will be receiving an additional $2,000 to go toward her graduate studies.
Joanna Laroussi earned two B.A. degrees in geography: one from the University of Silesia in Poland in 2003, and another from CUNY Hunter College in 2010. Her goal in 2003 was to immediately continue her education to obtain an advanced degree, but her family moved to the U.S. in 2004, and, as an immigrant, she did not have the opportunity to go directly to college. She spent her first years in the U.S. working long hours as a child-care worker, learning English and saving funds for college.
Currently, Laroussi is working toward a master’s degree in geography at CUNY Hunter College. She has also been accepted in a Ph.D. program at the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she plans to continue her studies in 2011. In 2009, she started to work part time as an intern with the New York City Department of Education Office of Pupil Transportation, where she has the opportunity to build her professional geographic information system experience and apply the concepts she learned in the classroom to real-world projects.
“It is a great honor for me to receive the Chasman Scholarship,” Laroussi said. “It will help me significantly in becoming a professional in the field of geographic information systems. After finishing my education, I wish to work for a government
Written by Diane Greenberg, The Bulletin
Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship
Ping Cao, a chemistry graduate student at Stony Brook University has won the sixth annual Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. The Asian Pacific American Association (APAA) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory sponsors the scholarship, which consists of $1,000 and a plaque, to honor the distinguished late Brookhaven Lab scientist for whom it was named.
Beth Y. Lin, widow of Mow Shiah Lin and trustee of the Asian Pacific American Association (left) presents Stony Brook University student Ping Cao with the 2010 Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship.
Cao is studying the formation of amyloids, toxic deposits formed by various proteins in numerous human diseases. In particular, Cao is investigating the mechanism in the formation of islet amyloid polypeptide, a protein that plays an important role in the development of diabetes, and designing amyloid inhibitors for potential therapeutic use.
“I am honored to receive the Dr. Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship,” Cao said. “I cherish the opportunity to do research with world-leading experts in my field at Stony Brook University. My career goal is to develop an independent research program focused on molecular medicine.”
Mow Shiah Lin began his career at Brookhaven Lab in 1975 as a postdoctoral fellow and advanced to co-lead a research team working with an environmental remediation company to use selected bacteria to convert toxic oil wastes, such as used motor oils, into useful products. In 2001, Lin shared an R&D 100 Award, given by R&D Magazine for the top 100 technological achievements of the year, for developing a technology to recover silica from geothermal brine. Lin died suddenly due to a brain aneurysm at the height of his career in 2003, and his coworkers, friends and family contributed funds to establish the scholarship.
In remembrance of the manner in which Lin began his career, the scholarship is granted annually to an Asian immigrant with a student visa who is matriculated at an accredited institution of higher education on Long Island (including Brooklyn and Queens) working toward a graduate degree in environmental & energy technology, biology, or chemistry.
Cao earned a B.S. in chemistry in 2005 and an M.S. in biology and pharmaceutical biotechnology in 2007 from Nanjing University in China. She enrolled in the graduate program in chemistry at Stony Brook University in 2007, and she expects to receive her Ph.D. in 2012.
Written by Diane Greenberg, The Bulletin
