From WIMPS to sprites:
Ideas drive graduate fellows' research efforts
BY DAWN LEVY
If Stanford Graduate
Fellowship (SGF) recipients ever want a theme song, a
good choice might be Timbuk3's "The Future's So
Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades." And not only is the
future bright. The present is pretty shiny too for these
stellar graduate students in science and engineering who
are free to choose research topics and mentors based on
mutual interest rather than availability of funds --
truly a student's dream come true.
The SGF program supports
valuable work that otherwise might fall through the
funding cracks due to its novel or interdisciplinary
nature. Research topics have ranged from WIMPS (Weakly
Interacting Massive Particles) to sprites (luminous glows
that can accompany lightening), bionic eyes and
microfabricated rocks to nature and nurture in the seep
monkeyflower.
"In the best
circumstances [before the SGF], you might have an idea,
submit a proposal and, if a miracle occurs, six months or
a year later you're funded," says James Harris, the
James and Ellenor Chesebrough Professor of Electrical
Engineering. He advises Xin Jiang, the Dwight Stanford
Graduate Fellow and a second-year graduate student in
applied physics, who focuses on quantum computing.
"If you have a student supported on an SGF, you can
start on something almost instantly. It avoids taking a
year to convince somebody in government to fund the idea.
By then you've already got some good results, and then
you have a much better chance of getting some support for
it."
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"The program has been
marvelous for students and for the faculty with whom the
students work," says Charles Kruger, vice provost
and dean of research and graduate policy. "It's been
great for the university and has been a real example for
other universities. I'd like to think we've helped not
only the graduate students receiving SGFs at Stanford,
but also other students at other universities where
similar programs are catching on."
Funding support of
Stanford's first students began in fall of 1997, and
three classes already have benefited from the funds. One
SGF student, Noam Sobel, already has received his
doctorate, and closing in on him at the doctoral finish
line are 331 students currently receiving funding.
One of those students is
Gypsy Achong, the Kimball Stanford Graduate Fellow and a
fourth-year civil and environmental engineering graduate
student from Trinidad and Tobago. She is the first
Stanford Graduate Fellow in the laboratory of
microbiologist Alfred Spormann, an assistant professor of
civil and environmental engineering.
"My adviser is a new
professor, so money is always an issue in the lab,"
says Achong. With her fellowship, Achong says, "it's
nice that he doesn't have to worry about getting funding
for me."
Achong studies the
molecular biology of an oxygen-shy microorganism that
degrades toluene and xylene, two of the most
water-soluble components in gasoline. Every gas station
stores gasoline in underground tanks. But 25 percent of
tanks leak, endangering groundwater and drinking water,
according to an Environmental Protection Agency study. A
common cleanup method is outgassing -- digging up the
tanks and letting the fumes evaporate, a technique that
"does not please the air pollution folks,"
Achong notes.
She is studying an
alternative: the pollution-fighting abilities of a
microorganism that thrives in the absence of oxygen and
that "grows like crazy" when placed at sites
contaminated with toluene and xylene. "These
microorganisms use toluene and xylene the way we'd eat
sugar and proteins. We oxidize foods, breathing in oxygen
and producing energy and breathing out carbon dioxide and
water. They use toluene and xylene as a carbon source to
make their cells, to produce energy and grow."
"Environmentally,
it's a very important reaction, and biochemically, it's a
novel reaction," says Spormann. "We've stumbled
on a gold mine."
What's more, Achong is
looking at degradation of compounds that nature doesn't
have a pathway to deal with. "I try to figure out
what the genes are that make these pathways go and how
the genes are turned on and off in response to
environmental signals," she says.
Stanford Graduate
Fellowships have been "an excellent recruitment
tool" for attracting and retaining students like
Achong who stand out academically, Spormann says. They
are especially useful for supporting international
students, who account for 30 percent of Stanford's
graduate students. "You often have excellent
international students who are not eligible for
fellowships offered by the Environmental Protection
Agency, the National Institutes of Health and the
National Science Foundation," Spormann says.
"All government fellowships require U.S.
citizenship. It's a major limitation."
Achong points out that
hers is a developing country. Support for graduate
research is scarce. With the Stanford program, the best
and the brightest can afford to pursue graduate studies
here regardless of the research budgets of their
homelands.
Without SGF money,
students say, they would have to spend more time as
teaching and research assistants -- worthwhile endeavors
but ones that take time from students' own research
projects. To receive their doctoral degrees, Stanford
students already must teach two quarters.
Spormann calls the
Stanford Graduate Fellowships "one of the most
important breakthroughs in the way we provide funding for
graduate education" because they provide maximal
freedom for faculty and students to explore fields that
might have a hard time getting funded due to their
interdisciplinary nature.
Kruger agrees:
"Students have freedom to switch advisers. Advisers
have the flexibility to explore new areas."
Matthew Reidenbach, the
Wells Family Stanford Graduate Fellow, is working toward
his doctorate in civil and environmental engineering with
adviser Jeffrey Koseff, a professor of civil and
environmental engineering and senior associate dean in
the School of Engineering. He is using his fellowship to
investigate a novel area that bridges the disciplines of
marine biology and fluid mechanics to study coral reef
ecosystems.
Turbulence above coral
reefs influences how organisms feed, how nutrients are
distributed, how larvae disperse and other factors
critical to dynamic ecosystems. To conduct this research,
Reidenbach spends about five weeks a year at the Red Sea.
His research collaborators include civil and
environmental engineering Professors Stephen Monismith
and Koseff at Stanford and marine biologist Amatzia Genin
and a half-dozen other researchers from Hebrew
University.
"In Matt's case, he
was in the first class receiving SGFs," Koseff says.
"Given their newness and the excitement, the SGFs
had an influence on a lot of people coming to
Stanford."
Has his fellowship given
Reidenbach the chance to pursue opportunities he wouldn't
have been able to otherwise?
"Definitely," he
says. "This project, funded by a joint Israeli-U.S.
science initiative, only covers support for research and
travel. An SGF allowed me to do this project because it
covers costs not covered by the research grant, namely
tuition and living expenses. The SGF allowed me to get
the project started and collect initial results to the
point where it can then be used to obtain further funding
after my SGF ends." SR
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