Two Hamilton seniors, Phillip Milner and Tom Morrell, have been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Milner is a chemistry/math double major who will be starting a Ph.D. program in chemistry in the fall, at an institution yet to be determined. Morrell is a chemistry major who will begin a Ph.D. program in chemistry at Princeton in the fall.
Two recent Hamilton graduates, Louisa Brown ’09 and Leanne Pasquini ’07, also received the prestigious fellowships. Brown is in her first year in the Ph.D. program in chemistry at Cornell, and Pasquini is at Yale in the first year of an environmental engineering Ph.D. program. Gregory Hartt '08, Marco Allodi '08 and Kristen Alongi '08 received honorable mention.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in the U.S. and abroad.
Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, a one-time $1,000 international travel allowance and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S., or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.
Ian Rosenstein, associate professor of chemistry, commented “This is a highly prestigious award and Phill and Tom are the first Hamilton students that I know of in recent years to be awarded one while still a college senior.”
Phillip Milner was a recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for the 2009-10 academic year. The Goldwater is the premier national undergraduate award in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. He was also the recipient of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP) /Dreyfus Grant prior to his freshman year at Hamilton, which enabled him to conduct summer research with a Hamilton science faculty member.
Tom Morrell recently published an article, “Atmospheric Implications for Formation of Clusters of Ammonium and 1−10 Water Molecules,” in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. His co-author was George Shields, former Hamilton College chemistry professor and currently dean of the College of Science & Technology at Armstrong Atlantic State University. Morrell was also the recipient of a STEP/Dreyfus grant.
NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation's technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large.
As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.
Phillip Milner is a graduate of Newark (N.Y.) High School, and Tom Morrell graduated from Randolph (N.J.) High School.
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