INSET intern and mentor awards and accomplishments
INSET mentor Pankaj Karande is the 2005 recipient of The Fiona Goodchild Award for Excellence as a Graduate Student Mentor of Undergraduate Research. The award is given to outstanding graduate students who have distinguished themselves through their excellence in, and contribution to, undergraduate research supervision, and to encourage others to become involved in these research efforts. The graduate students must be nominated by an academic department or program, or by an organized research unit. |
  Pankaj (left) pictured with 2004 INSET intern Moon Jean Ho |
| 2005 award recipient, Pankaj Karande, has mentored INSET students in 2002 and 2004, and has mentored interns from the predecessor to INSET: MRL's CCIMR program in 2001. He is a PhD candidate in chemical engineering and is a member of Samir Mitragotri's group in that department. Congratulations Pankaj! | |
2004 INSET intern Alma Garcia was selected for the research poster presentation award in engineering at the SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) national conference held in Austin, Texas Oct. 20-24, 2004. Alma's research project was one of 30 selected from over 500 entrants from colleges ranging from community colleges to graduate programs at top universities around the nation. Alma's project, "Understanding the Lateral Tunneling Accelerometer and the Micromachining Process" was conducted under the mentorship of UCSB Assistant Professor Dr. Kimberly Turner and graduate student Laura Oropeza-Ramos of the department of Mechanical and Environmental Engineering. |
 Alma (left) pictured with her mentor, Laura Oropeza-Ramos |
| The annual SACNAS conference brings together students, faculty, researchers and exhibitors from around the world for workshops and presentations on cutting edge research and trends in the sciences. Keynote speakers included Dr. Peter Agre, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Mr. Orlando Figueroa, Director of Mars Exploration and the Solar Systems Division, NASA, and Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. The mission of SACNAS is to encourage Chicano/Latino and Native American students to pursue graduate education and obtain the advanced degrees necessary for science research, leadership, and teaching careers at all levels. | |
| 2004 INSET mentor James Weaver, a UCSB graduate student and expert in photographing minute substances, won first place in the "Science as ART" competition at the International Conference of the Materials Research Society in San Francisco. There were more than 200 entries. James's award was for a scanning electron micrograph of the complicated skeleton of a marine sponge, using a sample that was prepared during the INSET summer program with intern Michael Porter. The image showed details of the "cement" that holds the creature's glassy structural elements together, which are too small to be seen by the naked eye. James is a graduate student in the Morse group in the Interdepartmental Marine Science Program. |
 James with his award-winning photograph |
