Sylvia Ranjeva, ESM junior and Schreyer scholar has been awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

Sylvia's commitment to Global Health has taken her to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, where she shadowed an orthopedic surgeon at the CURE pediatric orthopedic hospital for several weeks in summer, 2009. Sylvia serves as Vice President of the Penn State Chapter of GlobeMed and Chaired the 4th Annual Penn State Global Health Conference in 2011.

For the last two years, Sylvia has conducted research with Dr. Stephen Schiff in the Center for Neural Engineering. She is co-author of the paper “Association of Bacteria with Hydrocephalus in Ugandan Infants”, authored by Li L, Padhi A, Ranjeva SL, Donaldson SC, Warf BC, Magamba J, Johnson D, Opio Z, Jayarao B, Kapur V, Poss M, Schiff SJ, and published as the featured cover article in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, January 2011.

Sylvia is a member of the Women in Engineering Program, Sigma Kappa Sorority (as Activities and Philanthropy Chairs and THON Family Action Team member), Center Volunteers in Medicine, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Center County. Fluent in French, she has also spent time as a medical volunteer at an orphanage in Madagascar. ESM Congratulates Sylvia Ranjeva!

Amber Black, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechancis, has been awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her research on Laser-Sustained Plasma Induced Nucleation and Growth Processes. Amber is conducting her research with Judy Todd and Steve Copley in the Center for Multiscale Wave-Materials Interactions. Amber is the second NSF Graduate Fellow in the group. Abdalla Nassar received a NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2009. Congratulations Amber!

Sz-Chin Lin, graduate student in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has received a Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award. This prestigious award carries an honorarium of $1,000. Sz-Chin will be recognized on Materials Day 2011. Congratulations!