Fellowships provide graduate students with critical financial support as they pursue advanced degrees. In the case of the Bird Stewart Lightfoot (BSL) Wisconsin Distinguished Fellowship, a fund established as a permanent endowment for graduate students, those students are linked to three of the most prestigious names in the field of chemical engineering. R. Byron (Bob) Bird, Warren Stewart and Edwin Lightfoot are co-authors of the landmark textbook Transport Phenomena, and individually are research giants—but they also have made significant contributions in teaching and service.
The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering provides fellowships, such as this one, that support graduate students throughout their first semester, at the end of which they join a faculty member’s lab group and receive funding through research grants of that faculty.
For many students, including alumnus Jeffrey Herron, who received the BSL Fellowship in fall 2008, having financial support in the first few daunting months of graduate school is crucial. “Because I had funding for a year from the department, I had time to explore what options were available, meet with faculty and their students, and see what kind of work I would be taking on,” he says. “Having that time, and not going in blind, helped me make a better decision for my research interests. Having that flexibility in funding is important in having a successful graduate career.”
Herron, currently a senior engineer at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Michigan, is one of 10 students who received the fellowship since the department began offering it in 2007. Ultimately, Herron went on to join Manos Mavrikakis‘ group, specifically applying quantum chemical calculations to the identification of new materials, focusing on applications in energy. In his work with Dow, he helps scale up lab reactions to commercial-scale, often applying similar tools and calculations that he worked on during his graduate research.
Through fellowship funds like that of the BSL, students are given the freedom and flexibility to explore various chemical engineering sub-disciplines, and identify the research that interests them most. They also attend conferences, which often can be the key to focusing in on the research area they want to pursue throughout their graduate career.
For students, the fellowship can also mean much more than funding. It helps validate students’ perceptions of their academic path, let’s them know that they have potential, and encourages them through the early phases of an academic career.
The BSL fellowship is among several fellowships that help the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering to remain competitive, enabling it to attract some of the most academically advanced students. Not only does it illustrate the success of the department, it also provides students with the motivation to embrace their research.
Manos Mavrikakis, Vilas Distinguished Achievement and James A. Dumesic Professor and Ernest Micek Distinguished Chair highlights the importance of the fellowship, not merely because of the endowment it provides, but in what it signifies. “Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot are three of the most recognizable names in the history of chemical engineering on the global scale,” he says. “Having a graduate fellowship with that name is among the highest honors a chemical engineering graduate student can ever imagine.”
Make a Gift
Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot Graduate Fellowship Fund
Funding for graduate fellowships is among the department’s top fund-raising priorities. To make a gift or to learn more how you can be a part of this important effort, contact Mike Holland, mike.holland@supportuw.org, (608) 440-1178.
Thank you for supporting the BSL Fellowship Fund.