Alumni

Alumni Receive Prestigious Fellowships

Jason Hallman ’06 ME laughs when asked how long his Ph.D. program is expected to take. Kim Cristman ’06 ME pauses, answers, and then changes that answer to an estimation.

So much is unknown for the two College of Engineering graduates, both in the second year of their respective graduate programs. But as recipients of prestigious fellowships, they are off to a good start .

Hallman, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee, received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for the 2007-’08 academic year. He also has been selected to receive one of four national $10,000 research grants from the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.

He says his career is open to all possibilities, including teaching or working in safety research for an automotive company.

“I’m really glad I decided to go to Valpo,” he says. “I had considered other schools, but my mechanical engineering education combined with my Christ College associate program gave me a really well-rounded education and created a lot of opportunities I wouldn’t have had at a larger school.”

Cristman is studying for her master’s degree and Ph.D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. She recently was awarded the Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and available to females pursuing graduate education in the physical sciences, mathematics or engineering fields. She hopes to pursue a career in energy policy.

“My liberal arts background from Valpo has helped me a lot in developing my interest in energy policy,” she says. “And it helps in an atmosphere where so much is technical-based.”