Newsletter Issue 17

UPCOMING EVENTS

NEW GRADUATE STUDENT RESOURCE FAIR

January 11

MLK DAY OF SERVICE

January 16

GRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM REGISTRATION

January 18 - February 15

REGISTER HERE: https://www.grad.msstate.edu/students/graduatedevelopment/graduate-research-symposium

SPRING TAGGS DEADLINE

February 8

MARDI GRAS OPEN HOUSE

February 21

GRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

February 25

IMAGE OF RESEARCH REGISTRATION

February 1 - 28

REGISTER HERE: https://www.grad.msstate.edu/students/graduatestudent-development/image-of-research

GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION ELECTION NOMINATIONS

March 1 -10

GRADUATE STUDENT ASSOCIATION ELECTION

March 22 - 24

IMAGE OF RESEARCH EXHIBIT

March 20 - 31

FALL TAGGS OPENS ON

April 1

A NOTE FROM THE DEAN

Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Graduate School,

On behalf of the Graduate School, I commend all faculty, staff, and students for their contributions and collaborative spirit this semester. Because of your efforts, Mississippi State University remains the premier research institution in the state and maintains its national status as a tier 1 research university. With great enthusiasm, we recognized 73 of our graduates at the Doctoral Commencement and Hooding Ceremony held on December 8th. The very next day we celebrated 11 Educational Specialists, and more than 300 Master’s students received their diplomas. We wish all our graduates every success in their future career endeavors. As we close out a successful fall semester, we also take time to honor and remember our head football coach, Mike Leach. His sudden passing has certainly impacted both our campus and community and reminds us to make the most of each day we are given. We wish you all Seasons Greetings for the Christmas Holidays, safe travels, and enjoy some quiet and relaxing time with family and friends. See you in 2023!

Best Regards, Dr. Peter Ryan Executive Vice Provost and Dean The Graduate School

SAY HELLO!

Spotlight ADMISSIONS AND ENROLLMENT TEAM

Get to know the team!

• Angie’s mentor is her mother. She describes her as a tiny 5ft bit of a thing. Sweet and quiet. Humble as they come. Loves our Lord and has the largest forgiving nature you will ever see. She was a Nurse through most of her life and cared for many people.

• She likes to mix up her hobbies, crafting, swimming, reading, decorating, gardening, cooking, and her grand baby - time is super sweet!

Angela (Angie) Campbell

“I am inspired by the older-nontraditional students we see coming back for additional education. I am so proud to see them doing what it is they want to do. Some need a little more help with the application but once you get them started, they do great! I love talking to them.”

TIFFANY JOHNSON

RACHEL JENKINS

ANGIE CAMPBELL

CYNTHIA HOWARD

Rachel Jenkins

• Rachel was a competitive Irish Step dancer for years

• The next place on her travel bucket list is Glacier National Park and Denali National Park

• Her favorite hobby is reading

“When I joined TGS, I had just moved back to Starkville after getting married and after my first interview, I left thinking that I had found my “home” on campus – the staff was welcoming, and I loved what I saw when I walked in the door!”

Cynthia Howard

• Cynthia’s favorite hobby is sewing and DIY old fashion to new fashion.

• She is currently binge-watching Ozarks

• The next place on her travel bucket list is Hawaii

“I love the people that I work with within this department. I am amazed at how TGS goes all out in the services they provide for the students. I like being part of a team that is always there for others to help in any kind of way.”

Tiffany Johnson

• Tiffany loves art and finds art museums soothing and peaceful

• Her current favorite show to binge is From Scratch on Netflix. She mentioned she cried from episode 1 – 8.

• She defines success as happiness. It is that moment when you realize you are content, relieved, and proud; no matter what you’re doing and how long it took. It consists of so much more than just meeting a goal. It is looking at yourself in the mirror and understanding that you have done something that once felt out of reach.

“TGS has provided a family-oriented environment full of engaged leaders and motivators who do what they love while presenting themselves in the most welcoming way. TGS gives me a home away from home emotion every day. I love being able to extend help to my colleagues and students, all while obtaining new knowledge from all angles in the department.”

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

CAPT. (RET.) MATT SAVAGE

I always wanted to serve in the military, but when 9/11 happened, that’s when I really knew I wanted to be an Army man. My values of freedom, God and country motivated me to go to West Point and serve my country in the U.S. Army for over a decade before my life was altered by an accident. Since I was medically retired and moved back to Starkville, I realized there was no better time or place to get my graduate degree. MSU’s Center for America’s Veterans is the touchpoint between the government and me. They help me with all the paperwork and make sure I’m satisfying the requirements of MSU and the government. They even helped me get my service dog, Scout, registered at MSU. Overall, I have found Mississippi State to be a very supportive and veteran friendly campus - even students just walking by will stop and thank me for my service.

Graduate, Geoscience

Lorena Chavarro Chaux

Ms. Chaux works as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Watersheds and Water Quality Research Lab in the Rula School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She was recognized by the Society of Hispanic and Professional Engineers (SHPE) with the SHE Graduate Scholarship. The SHE scholarship was established to recognize outstanding fulltime graduate SHE members

enrolled in STEM degrees who have demonstrated and achieved positive academic records and extraordinary community service.

Lorena served as President of the MSU SHPE Student Chapter from August 2021 to July 2022. Her work was fundamental in the performance of different activities led by the chapter (e.g. Stream Clean Up, Se Habla Espanol, Science Night) and the

recognition the chapter received from the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement in April 2022. She was also awarded the 2022 Graduate Student of the Year by the Mississippi State University Graduate School. Additionally, she received recognition for various presentations at the Graduate Symposiums and the International Congress of Rivers and Wetlands.

Ryan Reynolds McNair Scholar

History Ph.D. candidate and McNair Scholar, Ryan Reynolds became one of the first in his family to attend college.

“I did my undergraduate, at Baylor University in Texas, and they started the McNair program a year before I finished. I had no idea what it was. I was in a hallway, talking to one of the staff members that worked in the Veterans Center because I was in the Army. At the time I would have loved to go to graduate school, but could not afford graduate school,” Reynolds said. “I did not know anything about stipends or anything like that. I met with the McNair coordinator and mentioned that my parents did not even graduate high school. So, I was the first Reynolds not just to graduate high school, but to finish college.”

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program was designed to

prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities. McNair participants are either first-generation college students with financial assistance or members of a traditionally underrepresented background in graduate education who have demonstrated strong academic potential.

The McNair Scholars Program encourages students to embrace the legacy of Ronald E. McNair and to create their own. Throughout his collegiate profession, Reynolds began to create his own legacy.

“In comparison to Ronald McNair, my legacy is not even close to what he has built. In terms of my legacy, I just try to do the best that I can. I love working with people and helping people around me. You know, the whole rising tide raises all ships,” Reynolds said. “That’s

Feature by Lauren Benton

really where I am at in my life right now. That is what I want to do is, I want to be able to connect with people. Especially, I think having the opportunity to teach but also, that you have an opportunity to show people upward mobility through higher education. Some of the most joyous moments do not necessarily come from publishing, sending in work for conferences, and all that stuff. But being able to see the light click with some students, or seeing those students find their voice and confidence.”

Reynolds’s overall research is focused on strategy, pop culture, and militarized policing/the militarization of the federal police force in the United States.

“I am really drawn to human rights work. In my dissertation, I look at militarized policing, specifically during the Civil Rights Movement. I look at that through the lens of popular culture. I just had a paper published on James Baldwin. The author and his literature as forms of revolution. And this sort of research has led me to look more at how Americans can improve living conditions across the board and start dismantling some of these structures in place,” Reynolds said. “After the Civil Rights Act and Voting Act in 1964 and 1965, you see a rise in incarceration and especially among a

specific population of people in the United States. Every year we do this book drive, to send books to incarcerated people. I would really like to do something to help improve conditions in the United States.”

In his time here in graduate school at Mississippi State University, Reynolds presented a paper at the Society for Military History (SMH) annual conference. The Society of Military History Board of Trustees elected Reynolds as the graduate student representative for the Journal for Military History editorial advisory board, a position he will hold until 2025.

Reynolds was chosen to attend the SMH and National WWII Museum’s first summer seminar in Military History. This summer’s seminar represents SMH’s endeavor to provide an educational opportunity for future scholars who will teach military history at academic and service institutions.

“Getting the Ph.D. means a tremendous amount to me. Just because like I said, I do not have this history of professional success or academic success. When I was admitted to MSU, it really helped me get a jump on research and opened my eyes to how important it is to be a first-generation, lowincome student,” Reynolds said.

Shaylin Williams Frontiers in Education

Shaylin Williams, an engineering education doctoral candidate, had the opportunity to travel to Uppsala, Sweden, to attend the Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference.

THE FIE Conference is a major international conference focusing on educational innovations and research in engineering and computing education, leading the world in the development of new research insights and educational approaches.

“This was a great network-building opportunity for me. I loved learning about the different research areas that other people are studying across the world. I was nervous to travel so far but would encourage anyone who was hesitant to go for it because when will you get a chance to do something like this? I am thankful for the travel funding provided through the Bagley College of Engineering to attend and present my research at the FIE Conference.”

The vice president of the Graduate Student Association, a chemistry doctoral candidate, Chathuranga Rathnamalala has been showcased in the Office of Technology Management’s Inventor Spotlight.

4 Chemdawgs awarded Advancing Science Grant by NOBCChE.

Four (4) students of the chemistry department at Mississippi State University were awarded the 2022 Advancing Science Grant to attend the 49th annual meeting of the NOBCChE (National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers) and for a podium presentation at a conference held at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida on September 26th-29th, 2022. This grant allowed these Bulldawgs to attend this conference. While there, students were able to network with professional chemists and chemical engineers who shared their ideas and knowledge with these advancing science grant recipients.

NOBCChE Advancing Science Grant Recipients are selected based on research activity and interest in the fellowship. The quartets of Jaylan

Billups, Maitreyee Rawat, Enock Amoateng, and Raymond Femi Awoyemi, all doctoral candidates in the chemistry department, also had the opportunity to present their findings at the event. The topic and the name of the presenters are given below:

Octahedral Iron complexes of Pyrazine (diamine) pincers – Jaylan Billups

C-H functionalization of Indole with Diazoacetate catalyzed by CCC-NHC Ir(III) Dimer complex

– Maitreyee Rawat

Intermediate in the metalation/transmetalation sequence: a mixed valent CCC-NHC Rh(III)/Rh(I) complex, synthesis and characterization, and initial reactivity. – Enock Amoateng

Polyaniline analogues for corrosion protection of AISI 4130 steel – Raymond Femi Awoyemi.

Raymond Femi Awoyemi

Raymond Femi Awoyemi, a Ph.D. student in Chemistry, was selected to participate in the ACS Bridge Project – ACS Career Kick-Starter (CKS) workshop, which took place in Washington, DC last month. The workshop was launched in 2018 with a grant from the NSF to provide ACS Bridge Fellows, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers who are underrepresented in the chemical sciences with the tools to conduct a successful career search and build a sense of community among participants. The workshop encourages Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals to find their first job in US governmental, non-profit, academic, or industrial organizations. By developing attendees’ interpersonal and communication skills, participants are more knowledgeable on how to communicate in both professional and personal settings.

Raymond said he was excited to have been selected as one of the graduate students to participate in the workshop because it will significantly impact his career in a positive way.

EVENTS

CHILLER THRILLERAMA

CHILLER THRILLERAMA

Thank you to all who attended this year’s Halloween Open House, Chiller Thrillerama! As you can tell from the video, it was full of fun, laughter, and a few frights!

We hope to see you again next year... if you dare.

FALL 2022

PHD HOODING CEREMONY

Congrats,

Congrats, Doctors!

Rebecca Bracken

MSU GRADUATE STUDENT HONORED WITH PHI KAPPA PHI NATIONAL LOVE OF LEARNING AWARD

A Mississippi State doctoral student in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture is being honored with an award from the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society.

Rebecca Bracken, who soon will defend her dissertation, is one of 200 Phi Kappa Phi

members nationally to receive its annual Love of Learning Award, a $500 post-baccalaureate professional development grant. Bracken was first inducted into PKP during her master’s program at Texas State University in 2014 and was reinstated in 2020 during her doctoral program at MSU.

“This is the second award I’ve received from Phi Kappa Phi, the first being the Graduate Research Award last year,” Bracken said. “The monetary support from that award helped me fund outreach workshops for undergraduates, and this year I will be able to continue that outreach and also attend an upcoming conference.”

Originally a pre-vet major at Miami University of Ohio, Bracken discovered her enjoyment of working outdoors and decided to shift her academic focus, graduating with a B.S. in Zoology and going on to earn an M.S. in Biology.

In her doctoral studies under advisor and associate professor Scott Rush, Bracken has studied the effects of silvicultural management in private working forests on breeding and wintering passerines, or birds that perch. With her research focused on assessing wildlife-habitat relationships, she has worked on banding birds over the winter to identify how different species use the forest and to investigate parasite prevalence in overwintering birds.

Bracken credits Rush for encouraging her to reinstate her membership as a doctoral student.

“I wasn’t aware of the award opportunities offered through Phi Kappa Phi, but hearing about them from my advisor gave me that push to renew my membership,” she said.

Rush, a former president of MSU’s PKP chapter, thought Bracken would be a strong candidate.

“A lot of graduate students aren’t aware of award opportunities that academic societies offer, so when someone deserving, like Rebecca, comes along, you certainly want to encourage them to apply,” Rush said.

Bracken said she is grateful for the recognition and the professional opportunities the award will support.

“It’s always rewarding to be recognized for your work, and I will certainly benefit from the financial support, but this also has been a great experience in learning how to market myself,” she said. “When you’re honored by people who don’t know you and judge you only on your application, it means a lot.”

For more on the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture in MSU’s College of Forest Resources, visit www.cfr.msstate.edu/wildlife.

Jeremy Montgomery racked up experience as both a graduate teaching assistant in his department and a graduate service assistant for the MSU Graduate School. Knowing his tuition would be fully covered, he said, would be “a big stress reliever.”

Our own Jeremy Montgomery was part of a feautrure in the latest Alumnus Magazine Fall 2022 issue. Please view the full story here.

MSU PHI KAPPA PHI WINS FIFTH CONSECUTIVE CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE AWARD AS NATIONAL MODEL CHAPTER

Mississippi State’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter once again is being nationally honored with a Circle of Excellence Platinum Award from the nation’s oldest and most selective multidisciplinary collegiate honor society. The Platinum Award is the highest PKP honor given to a chapter.

MSU’s chapter has been a Circle of Excellence winner for five consecutive years

since the awards program’s inception in 2018 and has been looked to as a national model by other university chapters across the country. The 2022-2023 award honors the MSU chapter as an excellent organization based on several criteria, including its yearly initiation efforts and activities.

MSU’s PKP chapter and members have continued to bring recognition to the university

with several achievements. Recently, MSU wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture doctoral student Rebecca Bracken was awarded with a PKP national Love of Learning Award; and MSU Professor Missy Hopper, a former PKP national president who also served terms in the president-elect and past president roles, was honored with a named dissertation fellowship. In recent years, the chapter has received a national Service Project Award, along with additional Circle of Excellence Platinum and Gold awards, among other honors.

Peter Ryan, executive vice provost and dean of the MSU Graduate School, serves as current MSU chapter president.

The honor society currently consists of approximately 25,000 members annually

across 325 college campuses around the country, its territories and in the Philippines.

Founded in 1897 at the University of Maine, PKP awards nearly $1.3 million each year to students, members, chapters and institutions through fellowships, awards and grants.

Membership is open to students, faculty, staff and alumni by invitation only and is highly selective. Invitations are given only to the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students and 7.5 percent of juniors, as well as faculty, staff and alumni with scholarly distinction that qualify.

For more on the national organization of Phi Kappa Phi, visit https://www.phikappaphi. org; for the MSU chapter of Phi Kappa Phi, see https://pkp.org.msstate.edu/index.php.

AWARDS

MSU recognizes 41 Graduate Student Research Symposium winners

More than 100 students recently showcased oral and poster presentations to a panel of MSU faculty members and researchers during the symposium. Approximately 45 faculty judges and 20 graduate student volunteers assisted with the event. Projects were divided across four categories—education, arts and sciences, and business; forest resources and veterinary medicine; agriculture and life sciences; and engineering. Winners received monetary awards—first place, $150; second place, $75; and third place, $50.

POSTERS

AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Ramandeep Kumar Sharma, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy doctoral student from India, for “Crop-climate link in the southeastern USA: A case study on oats and sorghum.”

SECOND—Li-Dunn Chen, a life sciences/ animal physiology doctoral student from Omaha, Nebraska, for “A toad is a toad— or is it? Shedding light on the biochemical differences of three anurans using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).”

THIRD—Varsha Singh, a plant and soil sciences/weed science doctoral student from India, for “Weed-suppressing potential of sweet potato varieties under field conditions.”

AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES MASTER’S STUDENTS

for interactive drought and heat stress tolerance.”

THIRD—Courtney Wynn, an agricultural life sciences/biochemistry master’s student from Hull, Alabama, for “‘Sweet’ silk glands: A glucose-conjugating enzyme is highly expressed in the silk glands of moths.”

EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND BUSINESS DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Bipin Lamichhane, a physics doctoral student from Nepal, for “Oxidation resistance of atomically flat Cu (111) surface: A First-principles study.”

SECOND—Hashani P. Abeysinghe, a chemistry doctoral student from Sri Lanka, for “Sorption of aqueous arsenic (V) by an iron oxide/rice husk biochar composite adsorbent.”

psychology educational specialist and educational psychology/psychometry master’s student from Pleasant Grove, Alabama, for “The effects of self-monitoring on increasing performance on early numeracy skills.”

SECOND—Moshood Fagbolade, a biological sciences master’s student from Nigeria, for “Examining occidiofungin targeting of fungal actin orthologs using the S. cerevisiae shuffle strategy.”

ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Sabyasachi Biswas, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student from Bangladesh, for “Multi-target activity classification with MIMO radar.”

SECOND—Mahathir Mohammad Bappy, an industrial and systems engineering doctoral student from Bangladesh, for “Morphological dynamics-based anomaly detection towards in-situ layer-wise certification for directed energy deposition processes.”

Lilli Harris Advisor

FIRST—Ranadheer Reddy Vennam, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy master’s student from India, for “Post-silking water-deficit stress impact on physiology and yield in corn.”

SECOND—Sadikshya Poudel, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy master’s student from Nepal, for “Phenotyping of soybean cultivars

THIRD—Brantley K. Ballenge, a kinesiology/ exercise science doctoral student from Hoover, Alabama, for “Moderation and mediation of body composition on the relationship between physical activity and arterial health.”

EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES, AND BUSINESS MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Jennifer Ani, an education/school

THIRD—Madhubhashini Lakdusinghe, an engineering/chemical engineering doctoral student from Sri Lanka, for “Nanoscale self-assembly of poly(3-hexylthiophene) assisted by a low-molecular-weight gelator toward large-scale fabrication of electrically conductive networks.”

ENGINEERING MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Lorena Chavarro-Chaux, a civil engineering master’s student from Colombia, for “Best management practices effectiveness on stream water quality in livestock management areas.”

SECOND—Subodh Poudel, a civil engineering master’s student from Nepal, for “Application of the HEC-HMS Model for runoff simulation of Catalpa Creek Watershed, Mississippi: Calibration, validation and model performance evaluation.”

THIRD—Reese Dunne, a mechanical engineering accelerated master’s student from Starkville, for “Development and implementation of a magnesium-based finite element degradation model for hydroxyapatite-coated orthopedic implants.”

FOREST RESOURCES AND VETERINARY MEDICINE DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Oluwabori Adekanye, a veterinary and biomedical sciences/veterinary medical research doctoral student from Nigeria, for “Carboxylesterase 1 modifies the proinflammatory phenotype of human THP-1 macrophages.”

FOREST RESOURCES AND VETERINARY MEDICINE MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Kyle Dues, a forestry master’s student from Kettering, Ohio, for “A machine learning approach to stand dynamics in a threatened forest ecosystem.”

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Josiane Argenta, a plant and soil sciences/weed science doctoral student from Brazil, for “Effect of melatonin in cotton sprayed with sublethal doses of 2, 4-D.”

SECOND—Tingjun Lei, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student from China, for “An informative planning-based multi-layer robot navigation system as applied in a poultry barn.”

THIRD—Sena Isbili, a life sciences/ entomology doctoral student from Turkey, for “Molecular cloning, mutation frequency analysis, and expression profiling of insect ryanodine receptor in soybean looper, Chrysodeixis includens.”

AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Dylan Lesak, a food science, nutrition and health promotion/food science and technology master’s student from Batavia, Illinois, for “Buffered dry vinegar decreases bacterial growth of refrigerated pork breakfast sausage.”

SECOND—Lovepreet Singh, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy master’s student from India, for “Genotyping-by-sequencing revealed extensive genomic diversity in bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.).”

THIRD (Tie)—Alyssa Lea Miller, a plant and soil sciences/weed science master’s student from Starkville, for “The suppressive ability of different cover crop production systems on troublesome weed species in cotton.”

Third (Tie)—Sadikshya Poudel, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy master’s student from Nepal, for “Detrimental effects of high daytime temperature on physiology and yield in soybean.”

ENGINEERING MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—William Downs, a mechanical engineering accelerated master’s student from Carrollton, for “Examining ULTEM 9085 by fused deposition modelling with a thermomechanical finite element analysis.”

SECOND—Lichang Zhu, a mechanical engineering master’s student from China, for “Two-dimensional simulation of flow in porous media using lattice Boltzmann method.”

THIRD—Javier F. Mendez Monroy, a civil engineering master’s student from Colombia, for “Best professional judgment (BPJ) evaluation considering an APEX uncertainty analysis (UA) in the Mississippi Delta region.”

FOREST RESOURCES AND VETERINARY MEDICINE DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Ian Pereira Sartorio, a forest resources/forestry doctoral student from Brazil, for “Reacting to hurricane disturbances: Optimizing forest resources with a supply chain model.”

EDUCATION, ARTS

AND SCIENCES, AND BUSINESS DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Sapan Luitel, a physics doctoral student from Nepal, for “E17011 experimental setup, and efficiency comparison between simulated and experimental results.”

SECOND—Saja Teeti, a physics doctoral student from Saudi Arabia, for “Rotating proton rich nuclei: the birth of proton bound rotational bands, high-spin giant proton halos and rotation induced extension of nuclear landscape.”

THIRD—Hoang Pham, a chemistry doctoral student from Vietnam, for “Synthesis of a CCC-NHC pincer Re complex: An air stable catalyst for coupling ketones with primary alcohols via borrowing hydrogen.”

ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Jing Yang, an electrical and computer engineering doctoral student from China, for “A hybrid routing method in energy harvesting wireless sensor networks.”

SECOND—Anh Vo, a biomedical engineering doctoral student from Vietnam, for “Impact of lipid composition on mechanoporation and failure of complex bilayer membranes.”

THIRD—Ayantha Senanayaka, an industrial and systems engineering doctoral student from Sri Lanka, for “Similarity-based multisource transfer learning approach for time series classification.”

SECOND—Emma Schultz, a forest resources/ wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture doctoral student from Jackson, for “On the move: How animal and small unoccupied aircraft system (sUAS) movements influence survey error.”

THIRD—Krista Ruppert, a forest resources/ wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture doctoral student from Kingwood, Texas, for “Postbreeding movement and microhabitat selection of Gopher Frogs (Rana [Lithobates] capito) on the Conecuh National Forest.”

FOREST RESOURCES AND VETERINARY MEDICINE MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Maxwell Schrimpf, a forestry master’s student from Beavercreek, Ohio, for “Harnessing the power of CT scanning to identify changes in relative density of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda).”

SECOND (Tie)—Bradly Thornton, a wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture master’s student from Savannah, Missouri, for “Modeling avian species distributions in open pine forests in the Southeastern United States.”

SECOND (Tie)—Sakar Nepal, a forestry master’s student from Nepal, for “Mississippi’s timber severance tax and its contribution to the economy.”

THIRD—James N. Helferich, a wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture master’s student from Broadalbin, New York, for “Effects of climate change on individual growth rates in a threatened pit viper.”

MSU Graduate School recognizes THREE MINUTE THESIS WINNERS

Mississippi State doctoral students Shaylin Williams (left) and Sakie Jaladha Arachchige (center) and master’s student Namia K. Stevenson (Photo by Grace Cockrell)

Mississippi State’s Graduate School is awarding eight students for superb research presentations during the university’s 10th annual Three Minute Thesis competition.

The recent 3MT event challenged graduate students to present their thesis/dissertation topics in three minutes or less. Student presentations were judged by a panel of academic and non-academic professionals with a wide range of expertise.

The judges chose Sakie Jaladha Arachchige of Sri Lanka, a mathematics and statistics doctoral student in MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, as the new 3MT Grand Champion for her presentation “Risk prediction of Primary Ovarian Insufficiency by an early age among female childhood cancer survivors.” Along with a $750 prize, Arachchige will represent MSU in the Regional 3MT competition at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools in Tampa, Florida in March 2023.

Namia K. Stevenson of Tullahoma, Tennessee, a wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture master’s student in MSU’s College of Forest Resources, received the Grand Champion Runner-Up prize of $500 for her presentation “Saving One Amphibian at a Time: Optimizing the Transferability of ART protocols in Anurans.”

The audience voted Shaylin Williams of Natchez, Mississippi, an engineering education doctoral candidate, for the $300 People’s Choice Award for her presentation “Constructing Knowledge on Student Motivation and Aspirations in Engineering Education Programs.”

The other finalists receiving $200 awards for their presentations are:

Casey Iwamoto of Seattle, Washington, a forestry doctoral student, “Sustainable Pathways for Shortleaf Pine in Uncertain Climates.”

Amanda Mayo of Lawrenceville, Georgia, a geosciences master’s student, “Effectiveness of Omeka Virtual Platforms for Engaging DunnSeiler Museum Audiences.”

Luke Tucker of Tupelo, Mississippi, an agricultural and biological engineering doctoral student, “Local Treatment of Chronic Bone Infections.”

Macy Gosselaar of Olathe, Kansas, a forestry master’s student, “Impact of Differentially Expressed Genes in Monoclonal and Polyclonal Plantings of Populus deltoids for Agricultural Nitrogen Mitigation.”

Elizabeth Esser of Grafton, Wisconsin, a forestry master’s student, “Using Plant Secondary Metabolites to Manage Invasive Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica).”

For more on MSU’s Graduate School, visit www. grad.msstate.edu.