Contact: Maridith Geuder
Two Mississippi State University students from Starkville are among four recognized for their research efforts by a coalition of Mississippi universities.
Louis H. Bluhm Jr. and D. Stephen Nichols recently were honored by the Mississippi Research Consortium, composed of Mississippi State, the University of Mississippi, Jackson State, and the University of Southern Mississippi.
Presented for the first time, the awards recognize work done under the auspices of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Funded in Mississippi by seven federal agencies, EPSCoR activities at the four participating universities involve chemistry and materials science.
Bluhm, a senior chemistry major, received a National Science Foundation EPSCoR award for research in electron transfer activity at surface modified glass carbon electrodes.
Nichols, a graduate student in aerospace engineering, was recognized with a Department of Defense EPSCoR award for his work in flow-field and wave forms created by surface ships.
State Sen. Dick Hall of Jackson made the presentations at an EPSCoR conference in Jackson. Hall is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Bluhm is a 1995 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and a President's Scholar. The 1992 Starkville High School graduate plans to pursue master's and doctoral degrees in chemistry.
Nichols, who holds a bachelor of science from the United State Naval Academy, is completing work on a master's degree in aerospace engineering. He will enter the doctoral program at the university in the fall.
Also receiving awards were Ole Miss graduate students Ellen Lackey of Jackson and Tanya Howard of Oxford.