Four West Virginia University graduate students have each received $5,000 stipends through the Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship Program.

Peter Gall of Darlington, Pa., and Justin Ross, Jered Studinski and Anthony Zias, all currently living in Morgantown, are being recognized for academic excellence and their contributions to the mission of WVU through their work as teaching assistants.

The students selected for the awards this year are strong researchers committed to undergraduate education,said Jonathan Cumming, assistant vice president for graduate education at WVU .All have significant teaching experience, and some are taking full responsibility for courses that play important roles in programs across the campus.

Brief bios of the awardees are as follows:

Gall

Gall is a doctoral candidate in WVU s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. He has a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, has worked for NASA as a research and flight specialist and was a flight officer for US Airways. At WVU , Gall is researching the dynamics of flight and teaching courses in flight vehicle design. His work is being mentored by Wade Huebsch, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Ross

Ross is pursuing a doctorate in WVU s Department of Economics in the College of Business and Economics. He is working in the area of urban, regional and public economics in relationship to taxation, and he has taught both introductory and upper division economics classes for the department. These courses include Introduction to Business and Statistics, Principles of Macroeconomics and Intermediate Macroeconomics. Professor Santiago Pinto of the Department of Economics serves as Rossdissertation adviser.

Studinski

Studinski is a doctoral student in fisheries in WVU s Division of Forestry and Natural Resources in the Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences. He has a Master of Science degree from Western Kentucky University. Under the supervision of associate professor Kyle Hartman, Studinski is studying the impacts of logging practices on stream ecology, and he is contributing to teaching in the Davis College as a departmental teaching assistant and co-instructor for the Applied Aquatic Entomology course.

Zias

Zias is a doctoral student in the Department of English in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at WVU . His work, supervised by professor Timothy Adams, focuses on narratives of religious beliefs and belief transformations that define conflict within the human spirit. Zias has taught Freshman Composition, Studies in the Novel and Short Story, and American Literature, among other courses.

The Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship Program is sponsored by the WVU Foundation, the private nonprofit corporation that generates, receives and administers gifts for the benefit of WVU . Administration of the program is conducted through the Office of the Provost at the University.

We congratulate these graduate students who have gone above and beyond in both the classroom and the research lab,said R. Wayne King, WVU Foundation president and CEO .Through the generosity of donors, the Foundation is pleased to be able to assist these exceptional students with their postgraduate studies.

Fellowships are awarded annually to provide stipends to exceptional doctoral students in each of the following categories: humanities, social sciences, life sciences, and physical sciences and technology. The program is intended to defray expenses of travel, supplies and other costs that may be incurred in the final stages of completing a dissertation.