Cardius Richardson

Cardius Richardson

By Professor Karen A. Singmaster and Professor Herbert Silber, College of Science

Three current and one former SJSU student–Cardius Richardson, Jorge Dinis, Sam Smits and Victoria Chemistruck–have been awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships to fund their doctoral studies in science fields.

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $30,000 along with a $10,500 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose.

Jorge Dinis

Jorge Dinis

Cardius, a recent biological sciences graduate from SJSU, will be attending the University of California, Santa Cruz, for doctoral studies in environmental toxicology.  He received funding from the National Institutes of Health Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program while conducting undergraduate research at SJSU with Associate Professor David Brook.

Jorge and Sam are biological sciences majors who will be graduating this May.  Both are research active with Associate Professor Cleber Ouverney and were funded by the National Institutes of Health Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) U-STAR Program.  This fall, Jorge will be starting in a doctoral program in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin and Sam will be in the doctoral program in microbiology and immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Sam Smits

Sam Smits

The fourth award recipient, Victoria Chemistruck, graduated in May 2010.  She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in chemistry at the University of Minnesota.  As an undergraduate, she was research active with Associate Professor Brook and received financial support for her education from the Scholars in Science Program, funded by the National Science Foundation.

In addition, three other SJSU students/alumni–Andrew Ingram, Amanda Shores and Thao-Nhi Le–received honorable mentions from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program.  Andrew is a chemistry major who will be starting his doctoral studies at Stanford this fall.  He was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s SCRIBE program at SJSU while doing research with Associate Professor Gilles Muller.  He was also just selected as one of SJSU’s Outstanding Graduating Seniors of 2011.

Victoria Chemistruck

Victoria Chemistruck

Amanda (B.S. Biological Sciences, May 2009) and Thao-Nhi (B.S. Chemistry, May 2010) are both currently in doctoral programs at the University of North Carolina and the University of California, Santa Cruz, respectively.  Amanda was in the MARC USTAR Program and was research active with Associate Professor Susan Lambrecht.  Thao-Nhi was an NSF Scholars in Science Program student and performed research with Professor Elaine Collins.

We congratulate all these students and the SJSU faculty members who mentored them!