Winners

Perspectives: Research and Creative Activities at SIUC, Fall 2007

:: research survey ::

Winners

J. B. Ruhl's dissertation in geography on the economic value of ecosystem services, which was featured in the fall 2006 issue of Perspectives (see "Eco-nomics") netted him the University's 2006 Outstanding Dissertation Award. Ruhl, geography professor Chris Lant, and agribusiness economics professor Steven Kraft recently published The Law and Policy of Ecosystem Services (Island Press, 2007).

The SIU Alumni Association's 2006 Outstanding Thesis Award went to Jemil Yesuf in civil and environmental engineering (now a doctoral student in engineering science). Yesuf improved mathematical modeling techniques for designing GAC (granular activated carbon) systems to remove textile dyes from factory effluent. His research also demonstrated that GAC systems using almond shells, an agricultural byproduct currently disposed of in landfills, can be used for dye removal. Yesuf went on to win the 2007 Midwest Association of Graduate Schools' Outstanding Thesis Award. His thesis advisor was Lizette Chevalier, professor of civil and environmental engineering.

In 2007 there were two winners of SIUC's annual Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher Award. Kaushik Balakrishnan, a doctoral student in chemistry, fabricates and studies the characteristics of nanowires and "nanobelts" made from organic semiconducting molecules. Such nano-assemblies, he explains, "have now emerged as unique building blocks in the miniaturization of optoelectronic devices." Balakrishnan, who works with chemistry professor Ling Zang, has published several first-authored articles in top chemistry journals. He won his department's teaching excellence award in 2003 and held an internship with Motorola in summer 2006.

The second winner, Abhijit Shukla, also has had several papers published in top science journals. A doctoral student in biochemistry and molecular biology, he works with professor Sukesh Bhaumik to understand the mechanisms involved in gene regulation. For organisms to function normally, genes must be properly "translated" into RNA, which drives protein manufacturing in the cell. When this process goes awry, various diseases, including cancer, can result. Shukla, who concentrates on gene regulation mechanisms implicated in human diseases, holds a two-year, $52,000 fellowship from the American Heart Association to help fund his research.

—by Marilyn Davis