Aggie Scholars Excel in NSF Grad Research Fellow Search

As they have for more than 15 years, Aggie scholars excelled in the 2015 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship search.

Utah State University’s 2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellows are Honors undergraduate Ren Gibbons (University Studies ’13, Civil and Environmental Engineering’15) and recent graduates Kevin Cope ’13 (Plants, Soils and Climate) and Celina Twitchell ’13 (Biological Engineering).

Receiving honorable mentions are recent USU graduates Zachary Butterfield ’13 (Physics) and Ruth Miller ’13 (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), as well as graduate students Sajeena Horvath (Ecology) and Kaylee Litson (Psychology.)

“NSF Graduate Research Fellowships are the nation’s most prestigious graduate awards in science and engineering,” said USU President Stan Albrecht. “This year’s honorees are a solid testament to the outstanding quality of our university’s academic and research programs, as well as the high caliber of our students and faculty.”

NSF GRFP recipients receive a three-year annual stipend of $32,000, along with a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

Kevin Cope ’13 (Fellow), Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

USU alum Kevin Cope is a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Salem, Utah, native is studying the symbiotic molecular signaling pathway between poplar and two of its fungal hosts in an effort to better understand how the tree can be grown for biofuel production. Kevin received an honorable mention in the 2014 competition.

Ren Gibbons ’13 ’15 (Fellow), Civil Engineering, Utah State University

Gibbons traces his fascination with structures back to his participation in a middle school Science Olympiad. He continues to volunteer as a state competition coordinator for the program that sparked his interest and propelled him into civil engineering studies. The graduate of Utah’s Davis High School chose Utah State, because it afforded opportunities for undergraduate research. At USU, Gibbons has been an Undergraduate Research Fellow, a teaching assistant and a laboratory instructor. He’s the recipient of an Engineering Undergraduate Research Program Grant and was a featured speaker during USU Research Week’s Ignite USU 2015 event. Gibbons is pursuing graduate studies at Stanford University.

Celina Twitchell ’13 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University

A graduate of Idaho’s Snake River High School, Twitchell earned a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from USU, where she was active in undergraduate research. In the lab of USU USTAR biology professor Randy Lewis, Twitchell conducted research on transgenic goats that produced spider silk protein in their milk. She is currently pursuing graduate studies in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Indiana’s Purdue University.

Zach Butterfield ’13 (Honorable Mention), Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

At Utah State, Zach Butterfield studied the upper atmosphere using USU’s “Gold Beam” or Sodium LiDAR with physics faculty mentor Titus Yuan. The Kearns, Utah, native conducted research on the mesopause region, some 50-65 miles above the Earth’s surface. At USU, Butterfield also served as a recitation instructor for professor Farrell Edwards. He’s currently a doctoral student conducting remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence in the Carbon Cycle Research Group of Gretchen Keppel-Aleks at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Sajeena Horvath (Honorable Mention), Ecology, Utah State University

A 2010 graduate of Indiana’s Butler University, Sajeena Horvath served for two years with the Peace Corps as a high school biology teacher in rural Kenya. As a doctoral student in USU’s Department of Biology and the USU Ecology Center, Horvath is working with faculty mentor Karen Kapheim to understand how changes in the environment affect gene expression of different social behaviors in species of bees, the transcriptional networks involved in these alternate phenotypes and the permanence of the changes.

Kaylee Litson (Honorable Mention), Psychology, Utah State University

A native of Washington City, Utah, Kaylee Litson is a graduate of Utah’s Dixie State University, where she was active in undergraduate research and named “2012 Student of the Year in Psychology.” A USU Presidential Doctoral Research Fellow, Litson studies psychology methodology with faculty mentor Christian Geiser. Her primary research interest is in quantitative psychology, specifically in latent state-trait and multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) modeling. In addition, Litson is investigating how to define latent variables within the context of psychometric theory.

Ruth Miller ’13 (Honorable Mention), Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University

As an undergrad mechanical engineering major at USU, Ruth Miller was among the Aggie team that captured first place in the 2013 Air Force Research Laboratory Design Challenge with its portable bridge design. While at Utah State, Miller, who earned an emphasis in aerospace engineering, participated in the NASA Langley Aerospace Research Student Scholars Internship program two years in a row. She’s currently a master’s student at Stanford, where she’s developing a sun sensor array system for satellite orientation in the university’s Extreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory.

This year’s USU honorees join 42 Aggies who have received fellowships and 42 USU students or alumni who have received honorable mentions since 1999.

Contact: David Peak, 435-797-2884, david.peak@usu.edu

Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto, 435-797-3517, maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu