Three UT students were recognized today with Whitaker Foundation Professional Development Awards. The students are Nicki Bergmann, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering, and Brock Thomas, a graduate student whose research is of biomedical interest, both received the grand prize, and Kristy Wood, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering who received an honorable mention.
Three UT students were recognized today with Whitaker Foundation Professional Development Awards. The students are Nicki Bergmann, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering, and Brock Thomas, a graduate student whose research is of biomedical interest, both received the grand prize, and Kristy Wood, a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering who received an honorable mention.
During the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Society For Biomaterials, these students were recognized for their outstanding research with the Student Professional Development Awards. The Awards are supported by a grant from the Whitaker Foundation in order to increase opportunities for student education, professional development, and participation at the 31st Annual Meeting. These awards provided travel funds for full-time students enrolled in accredited biomedical engineering and related programs to attend the 2005 Meeting, and complimentary registrations to the Workshops. The three students were selected from more than 700 research papers that were submitted this year. Selection of the students to receive the Whitaker awards was based on the average score of their submitted abstracts. This year, only students whose abstracts received an average score of 4.9 or greater out of 5.00 were selected for one of the 21 Whitaker Professional Development Awards given!
Nicki Bergmann, a graduate of BME from St Louis University joined our BME Department in January 2003. The research recognized by the Whitaker Award involves the use of novel methods of recognition of proteins as methods of biomimetic analysis of biomedical devices. Brock Thomas, a graduate of the University of Tennessee, joined UT in September 2003 as a Homeland Security Fellow, one of the most prestigious fellowships in the biomedical field. His work recognized by the Whitaker Award presents novel muco- and bioadhesive systems that can be used for targetting of vaccines and other drugs to our body. Finally, Kristy Wood, a BME graduate of the University of Wisconsin, joined UT BME in January 2003 and is working on the cellular analysis of the transport mechanisms of proteins. All three students work with Professor Nicholas A Peppas.
