Ph.D. Candidates are Rewarded for Excellence

The University of Virginia’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (VPRGS) is diligently garnering resources to attract and retain the very best graduate students. 

The VPRGS established the Fellowship Enhancement for Outstanding Doctoral Candidates program in 2005 in order to augment financial packages to draw top students to U.Va.  This spring, a modest increase in state support for graduate student funding was used to create two new fellowships- the “Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences” and the “Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Sciences and Engineering.” 

Advanced doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences and science and engineering were chosen for the fellowship awards based on demonstrated excellence in original scholarship.  Our intent is to reward students who are bringing recognition to graduate programs at the University of Virginia as a result of their intellect, hard work, creativity and passion through a competitive application process.  The fellowships consisted of a one-time, $5,000 award. 

Barry Condron, Director of U.Va.’s Neuroscience Program, remarked on the high achievements of Eric Stauffer, Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience and winner of the Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Sciences and Engineering, “He discovered physiological evidence that suggests Myosin 1c mediates fast adaptation in sensory hair cells of the inner ear.   Fast adaptation has been suggested to underlie cochlear amplification, a process that physically enhances soft sounds and allows us to hear the faintest of whispers.  Thus, Eric may have discovered the molecular correlate of one the few remaining mysteries of the inner ear and he did it by looking in a place no one had thought to look before.”

Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences winner Shana Goldin-Perschbacher is a doctoral candidate in Critical and Comparative Studies in Music.  Her research on the late singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley will be featured in the upcoming book, Masculinities and Popular Music.  Richard Will, Director of Graduate Studies in the McIntire Department of Music, commented on Goldin-Perschbacher’s award, “We're very pleased that the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies has chosen to recognize Shana's important work on the representation of gender in popular music.”

The fellowship winners possess an array of remarkable accomplishments including award-winning presentations at national and international conferences and published chapters in books as well as articles in highly respected journals such as Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.  One student designed and fabricated a near-infrared camera for the telescope at Fan Mountain Observatory to collect signals from giant stars to trace the structure of our galaxy.

Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Sciences and Engineering fellows include: Cristian Bodo and Eric Stauffer, Neuroscience; Ignacio DeMarco, Cell and Developmental Biology; Srikrishna Kanneganti, Astronomy; Michelle Kofron, Biomedical Engineering; John Lamoreux, Environmental Sciences; Coire Maranzano, Systems Engineering; Daniel Smith and Jianlong Sun, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Genetics; David Tarjan, Computer Engineering; and Daniel Toundykov, Mathematics.

Award for Excellence in Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences fellows include: Elizabeth Anker and David Sigler, English; Monica Black, History; Jason Megill, Philosophy; Shana Goldin-Perschbacher, Music; Daniel DiSalvo and Evan Montgomery, Politics.