Arts and Sciences Graduate Student Awarded Competitive Fellowship
Posted on August 28, 2015 by Arts and Sciences
Two USA students have been awarded the ALEPSCoR GRSP fellowship - Jeffrey Kalagian from the College of Engineering and Justin Roberts from the College of Arts and Sciences. These fellowships are extremely competitive with only 19 awarded this year to graduate students across the state of Alabama.
Justin Roberts was awarded his fellowship based on his studies of the molecular differences between two related but behaviorally distinct forms of breast cancer. Impressively, Justin has already been included as an author on five original research articles during his short time at USA and looks to author several more while completing his fellowship. Justin will finish his M.S. degree in Biology in 2016 and plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program in Bioinformatics.
The Alabama Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (ALEPSCoR) is dedicated to the advancement of economic development via scientific and engineering research through a collaborative effort among the State’s research universities. The focus of activities is designed to attract and retain distinguished scientists and researchers for Alabama; to develop new cutting-edge technologies and high-tech industry; and to stimulate state competitiveness in medicine, biotechnology, engineering, and other applied sciences.
The goal of the ALEPSCoR GRSP is to invest in Alabama universities to expand research output and attract eminent senior faculty and quality graduate students. The program’s objective is to provide a highly trained workforce to fuel the growth of high technology companies in Alabama. Graduate students who represent the next generation of researchers and innovators are critical to the advancement of Alabama’s high-tech human resource capacity. In 2012, the Alabama Legislature continued the appropriation to ALEPSCoR through the Alabama Commission on Higher Education for the purpose of funding the GRSP. Since its inception in 2006, the program has funded more than 187 exceptional graduate students. Students are selected competitively by a team consisting of one campus coordinator from each of the Ph.D. granting institutions in the ALEPSCoR Program.