ATHENS, Ohio -- Ohio University graduate student Dawn Black was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which provides three years of financial support and tuition and fees totaling more than $144,500. In addition, the program offers a one-time international research travel allowance for fellows who plan to study or do full-time research at a foreign site for at least three continuous months.
"Dawn's NSF award was the only one at Ohio University this year, and the first one in the plant biology department," said Kim Brown, assistant professor of environmental and plant biology. "I'm very proud of her achievements and I have big expectations for her next three years of research."
NSF Graduate Fellowships offer recognition and three years of support for advanced study to approximately 900 outstanding graduate students in the mathematical, physical, biological, engineering and behavioral and social sciences and to research-based Ph.D. degrees in science education.
"I am amazed that I am a recipient, most of these awards go to students attending well-known research universities," said Black, who is also a single mother. "The most thrilling part of this award is that I will now be able to spend more time with my son outside of the regular school schedule, while having plenty of time to carry out my dissertation research during the next three years."
Black is a second-year Ph.D. student in the environmental and plant biology program. She received a bachelor's degree in biology from Fairmont State College in 2001. She was named the 2001 Eleanor M. Ford Outstanding Senior in Science and the Coleman-Cobb-Postawa Outstanding Student in Undergraduate Research. In 2001, she also was awarded NSF Undergraduate Diversity Grant to present at the 2001 Evolution Conference in Knoxville, Tenn.
In 2002, Black received a travel award to present research at the 4th International Congress on the Systematics and Ecology of Myxomycetes in Brussels, Belgium. She is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society and sub-committee chair of the planning committee for the Women in Science and Engineering Day.
Black is the daughter of George and Glenda Smith of Buckhannon, W.Va.
