2012-2013 Scholarship Winners
Five Student Researchers Named for Top Research Honors
CE-CERT Director Matthew Barth announced the winners of the five top fellowship/scholarship awards for 2012-2013 school year. Each of the awards was established by their respective donors to support and encourage research on environmental issues.
The Ford Motor Company Undergraduate Scholarship was awarded to Victor Aguilar and Joseph Menke. Two Ford Undergraduate awards were given this year due to the equally remarkable research these two individuals had contributed here at CE-CERT.
Mr. Aguilar is a Riverside native, third year Chemical and Engineering student at UCR and a research assistant in Dr. Charles E. Wyman's laboratory at CE-CERT. He is studying the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels in hopes of optimizing biomass pretreatment. After graduation, he hopes to pursue a career with a company whose emphasis is also on viable energy sources and he also wants to travel to less developed countries to help raise the living standards of the people there. With the financial support provided to him by the Ford Motor Company and CE-CERT, his financial status for his final year of undergraduate education at UCR is more secure and he is one step closer to realizing his academic and career goals, and for that he is truly grateful.
Joseph Menke is a Third-Year Electrical Engineering major at the University of California Riverside. He began working as an Undergraduate Researcher at the College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) in his freshman year (Spring 2011). Recently he was chosen as one of five students to participate in an NSF International Research Experience for Students (IRES) in China. He is also heavily involved in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) student branch at UCR and served as the club's Vice Chair this past year. Through IEEE he taught robotics workshops to fellow students and helped organize two community outreach events to teach local Boy Scouts about engineering.
Amir Rustamzadeh, winner of the Jim Guthrie Research Award, originated from Isfahan, Iran and immigrated to the U.S. in 1999.
Mr. Rustamzadeh served as the Chair of Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, and he recently served as the President of the Institute of Navigation at UCR. Amir was an academic employee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he worked on the Mars Science Laboratory rover. He also worked at Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), where he worked on the avionics of the Dragon Space Capsule and Flacon 9 rocket, which recently docked with the International Space Station. Currently, he is working on the data acquisition backbone of CE-CERT's New Grid project. Amir will continue his education as a Master's student at UCR next Fall.
The Esther Hays Graduate Fellowship was awarded to Xiaochen (Esther) Tang studying Chemical and Environmental Engineering.
Ms. Tang is a fourth year graduate student at CE-CERT. Working with Dr. David Cocker and Dr. Akua Asa-Awuku, she investigates the formation and composition of anthropogenic and biogenic aerosol to explore the impacts on foremost climate and subsequently health. The ability of aerosol acting as Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) is also explored, which is important for constraining the global aerosol-indirect effect.
William R. Pierson Graduate/Ford Graduate Fellowship was awarded to Mohammad (Yusuf) Khan.
Yusuf Khan is a fourth year Ph.D candidate in the department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. He works under the guidance of Dr. David R. Cocker III, Dr. J. Wayne Miller and Dr. Kent C. Johnson. His research work aims at improving air quality around port communities and consequently reducing adverse health impact from diesel engines. One aspect of his research focuses on evaluating different emission measuring technologies such as portable emission measurement systems (PEMS) and sensors which are essential in quantifying in-use emissions (significantly different from laboratory measurements) and to assure proper performance of engine and after-treatment technologies. A second aspect of his research is to use qualifying PEMS to evaluate strategies such as switching to cleaner fuels, alternative fuels, reducing ocean-going vessel speed in scope of reducing emissions and dependency on fossil fuels.
CE-CERT has many more opportunities for students to participate in significant research. During 2011, 68 graduate students and 74 undergraduate students worked as part of CE-CERT research programs. Applications for next year's awards will be solicited in May, 2013.