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Petit Institute Announces its 2012 Class of Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars

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The Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech announces its 2012 class of Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars.  The "Petit Scholars" are top undergraduate students from Atlanta-area universities chosen from a highly competitive selection process to conduct independent research projects for a full year at the Petit Institute. 

The Petit Scholars program is administered by the Petit Institute and Todd McDevitt, a Petit Faculty Fellow and associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, who volunteers as the faculty advisor for the program.

"We had a very competitive applicant pool this year," McDevitt said.  "Due to the generosity of various donors, we were able to award nineteen research scholarships this year."

From January through December of 2012, each of the 19 scholars will be mentored by a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow in a Petit Institute laboratory.  During this period, the scholars will work to develop their own research projects which they themselves have selected after a thorough interview process with potential mentors.  Research is conducted within the areas of cancer biology, biomaterials, drug design, development and delivery, molecular evolution, molecular cellular and tissue biomechanics, regenerative medicine, stem cell engineering and systems biology.  Many scholars will have made enough progress in their research by the end of the year to participate on scientific publications and/or present at conferences.  

The class of 2012 is represented by students from Georgia Tech, Emory University, Spelman College and Agnes Scott College.

2012 Class of Petit Scholars:
Michael Butler - Georgia Tech
Frederick Damen - Georgia Tech
Kyle Ferguson - Georgia Tech
Kelsey Gratton - Georgia Tech
Alexandria Harrison - Spelman College
Susan Hastings - Georgia Tech
Kathleen Heller - Georgia Tech
Jacob Johnson - Georgia Tech
Taylor Kavanaugh - Georgia Tech
Lu Ling - Georgia Tech
Robert Mannino - Georgia Tech
Mohamad Ali Najia - Georgia Tech
Marc Powell - Georgia Tech
Sydney Rowson - Georgia Tech
Abhinav Sharma - Emory University
Andrew St. James - Georgia Tech
Patrick Strane - Georgia Tech
Anirudh Sundararaghavan - Georgia Tech
Alexandra Wagner - Agnes Scott College

Since its inception in 2000, the program has supported hundreds of top undergraduate researchers who have gone on to distinguished careers in research, medicine and industry.  Originally established as a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program from a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant awarded to the Georgia Tech/Emory Center for Tissue Engineering, the program was expanded to a full year research opportunity that has grown from funding 10 scholars per year to 19 scholars in 2012.

Funding for the Petit Scholars is supported by Atlanta area community members, including the Friends of the Petit Institute, as well as corporate sponsorship.  If you are interested in donating to this valuable program, please contact us.

Petit Scholars program information

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Colly Mitchell
  • Created:01/17/2012
  • Modified By:Fletcher Moore
  • Modified:10/07/2016