February 13, 2003

Presidential Fellowship is new honor

Presidential Fellowships are the most prestigious and competitive fellowships for PhD or MFA students at Northwestern.

The new honor is given yearly to students from across the University who are recognized as future intellectual and creative leaders.

Eight students were appointed last year and six will be named this spring to fill upcoming vacancies.

The new Society of Fellows program was developed last year by Graduate School Dean Richard Morimoto and Michelle Citron who served as associate dean. The Graduate School administers the program which has been funded by President Henry S. Bienen.

“I am sure this will strengthen intellectual community among graduate students by leading to interchanges across fields and disciplines,” Bienen said. “At the same time, we are recognizing graduate students working at the cutting edge of their chosen fields.”

“There are only two other societies for graduate students at American universities,” said Citron. “Most such honorific societies are for post-doc or faculty only.” The Presidential Fellowship provides tuition plus stipend for a period of one to two years.

The Fellows meet for social events and to present their research to each other, have informal conversations across fields, and meet with outside speakers. They also attend a formal dinner each quarter with faculty serving on the committee.

Participation enriches members’ scholarship, expands their horizons and helps to “jump-start” their careers, according to Andrew Wachtel, chair of Slavic languages and literatures and a former junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows.

“I found it a fascinating experience to have the opportunity to speak with people in fields I would normally have known nothing about,” said Wachtel, who served on last year’s selection committee. “The society gave me the greatest gift anyone in academics can have — the gift of uninterrupted time to pursue my research interests.”

The Northwestern awards place an emphasis on interdisciplinary studies. Kathleen Green, professor of pathology who served on the selection committee last year, said, “A premium is placed on the students’ appreciation of how their work has impact and significance beyond the narrow strictures of a particular field.”

Students who are already supported by prestigious external fellowships are eligible for an honorific Presidential Fellowship. Although honorific Presidential Fellowships carry no monetary award, recipients are full members of the Society of Fellows.

The eight students inducted last spring into the first class of Presidential Fellows, have a wide range of academic interests. The students, their research creative focus, and their faculty adviser are as follows:

Susan Agrawal, music theory/musicology, specifically the history of music theory and music and medicine (Linda Austern)

Robin Beck, archaeology of social change in prehistoric new world (James A. Brown)

Jeff Clayton Brown, narrative and documentary film/video exploring obsession and observation (Michelle Citron)

Jerome Budzik, human-computer interaction, intelligent software agents, information retrieval (Kristian Hammond)

Christy Haynes, optical properties of nanomaterials, alternative teaching models, grant writing and mentoring skills (Richard Van Duyne)

Ersin Kececioglu, semiclassical studies of spin tunneling in molecular magnets (Anupam K. Garg)

Susan McGovern, a general mechanism of promiscuous inhibition by small molecules (Brian Shoichet)

Ioana Szeman-Ureche, political performance and the Roma in Post-Communist Romania (Margaret Thompson Drewal)

The Presidential Fellowship Committee is a university-wide group of senior distinguished faculty. They select awardees from among nominations made by the students’ academic departments, mentor students and attend quarterly dinner presentations.

Faculty members who last year served on the selection committee headed by Michelle Citron, were:

Annette Barbier, associate professor of radio/TV/film

Dwight Conquergood, associate professor of performance studies

Kathleen Green, professor of pathology

Robert Holmgren, professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology

Monica Olvera de la Cruz, materials science and engineering

Andrew Wachtel, professor of Slavic languages and literatures

Thomas A. Bauman, associate dean of The Graduate School and professor of music academic studies/composition, is chair of this year’s selection committee.

Other members of the 2002-03 selection committee are Richard Kraut, professor of philosophy, and Wendy Griswold, professor of sociology and English.