KU students, alumni win 7 NSF fellowships for graduate study in science

LAWRENCE -- Seven University of Kansas students and graduates have won National Science Foundation fellowships. Regarded as one of the premier graduate awards in the sciences, the fellowships may provide each recipient a total of $114,000 for three years of graduate study.

The KU winners of NSF fellowships are:

 • Sarah Ann Heimovics, Fairway, for graduate study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
 • Irene Samantha Karel, Rutgers State University, New Brunswick, N.J., for graduate study at KU
 • Ryan David Kinser, Oklahoma City, for graduate study at the University of Michigan
 • Katie Rose Mitchell-Koch, Wichita, for graduate study at the University of Michigan
 • Megan Louise Sumpter, Madisonville, Iowa, for graduate study at the Georgia Institute of Technology
 • Ian Tennyson Tice, Tecumseh, for graduate study at Columbia University, New York
 • Christina Luisa Vizcarra, Leawood, for graduate study at the California Institute of Technology

The National Science Foundation graduate fellowship program in Oak Ridge, Tenn., announced 900 fellows for the 2003-04 academic year selected from more than 7,700 applications. The fellowships provide a stipend of $27,500 and an education allowance of $10,500 paid to the fellow's institution for tuition and fees per year for three years of graduate study.

NSF fellowships are for graduate study leading to research-based master's or doctoral degrees in the mathematical, physical, biological, behavioral and social sciences; engineering; the history of science and the philosophy of science; and to research-based Ph.D. degrees in science education.

Candidates must be U.S. citizens or nationals, or permanent resident aliens of the United States. Fellowships are intended for individuals in the early stages of their graduate study. In most cases, an individual has three opportunities to apply: during the senior year of college, the first year of graduate school and the beginning of the second year of graduate school.

Recipients and honorable mention candidates are listed online at www.nsf.gov/grfp.

The new NSF fellows with bachelor's degrees from KU and their hometown addresses are:

JOHNSON COUNTY
From Fairway
Sarah Ann Heimovics, a May 2000 KU graduate in biology, is the daughter of Richard Heimovics. She is Shawnee Mission East High School graduate.

From Leawood
Christina Luisa Vizcarra, a 2002 KU graduate in chemistry and mathematics, is the daughter of Jorge Vizcarra. She is a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology. Vizcarra is a Shawnee Mission East High School graduate.

SEDGWICK COUNTY
From Wichita
Katie Rose Mitchell-Koch, senior in chemistry, daughter of Lawrence and Melanie Mitchell. She also has received a Hertz Foundation Fellowship for graduate study and is a Goldwater Scholar and a Rotary Ambassadorial scholar. She is a Wichita High School East graduate.

SHAWNEE COUNTY
From Tecumseh
Ian Tennyson Tice, a senior in physics and mathematics and a Goldwater Scholar at KU, is the son of John and Deb Tice. He is a Shawnee Heights High School graduate.

DELAWARE
From Wilmington
Irene Samantha Karel, KU doctoral student in systematics and ecology, received a bachelor's degree from Rutgers State University, New Brunswick, N.J., where she studied ecology.

LOUISIANA
From Madisonville
Megan Louise Sumpter, a 1999 KU graduate in mechanical engineering, is a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Sumpter and a graduate of Mandeville High School.

OKLAHOMA
From Oklahoma City
Ryan David Kinser, senior in mathematics and a Goldwater Scholar at KU, is the son of Pam and David Kinser. He is a Classen High School graduate.