Thursday, April 30, 2009 - Six students from The University of Western Ontario have been selected to receive one of the newest and most prestigious scholarships in Canada - the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
The scholarship recipients were announced in Ottawa this afternoon at an official recognition ceremony led by Minister of State Gary Goodyear.
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program is designed to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting those who demonstrate a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health;as well as leadership skills.
Both Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated and each student is eligible to receive up to $50,000 per year for three years.
Western's recipients are:
A southwestern Ontario native, Marlene Bagatto holds a Bachelor of Arts from Western, a master of Clinical Science in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and a Clinical Doctorate in Audiology from Central Michigan/Vanderbilt University.
Bagatto is currently in the first year of the PhD program in Hearing Science in the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Program at Western. Her research will focus on evaluating clinical tools for measuring the impact of hearing aids fitted to young infants and children with permanent hearing loss.
For 10 years, Bagatto has worked in the Child Amplification Laboratory at the National Centre for Audiology at Western. She also serves as the Amplification Consultant and Instructor for the Early Years Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services' Infant Hearing Program. In 2006, she was awarded the Networks of Centres of Excellence Young Innovators Award.
Born in Slovakia, Barbora Bajtos immigrated to Canada as a young child. She holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors Specialization in Chemistry from Western. Always fascinated by chemistry Bajtos worked as a summer research assistant for a number of chemistry researchers.
She has chosen to pursue a graduate education in synthetic organic chemistry and began by completing and publishing the total synthesis of a complex natural product called (±)-Quebrachamine in under a year.
Bajtos has already published in a number of influential scientific journals and has presented at several national conferences.
Marianne DeGorter came to Western in 2007, funded by a Canada Graduate Scholarship from NSERC. Her undergraduate studies included biomedical computing, and a multidisciplinary program in computer and life sciences, and DeGorter also was recipient of a Queen's Chancellor's Scholarship and a Canada Millennium Excellence Award.
Her research focus is on personalized medicine, an emerging field that seeks to address interindividual variability in drug response by considering an individual's genetic makeup when choosing appropriate drugs and their dosages. DeGorter is involved in work to create new models to understand variability in drug response.
Lee Ferchoff is working on a PhD in Economics and his area of research is applied macroeconomics. His current research focuses on modeling credit rating agencies, considered one of the major players in the financial crisis.
Ferchoff believes it is important to develop a working model of the environment these organizations operate in so that policy implications can be tested that may prevent future crises. He holds a Joint Honours BSc in Physics & Mathematics from the University of Manitoba.
A native of North Carolina, Ian Holloway graduated with a double major in Psychology and Philosophy in 2003 from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He continued with his studies of children's development of numeracy and mathematical skills under the supervision of Daniel Ansari at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.
When Ansari moved to Western, Holloway followed. Currently completing the second year of the four-year developmental psychology program, his research uses both behavioral and brain-imaging methods to examine how developing children typically understand the Arabic numerals.
A Canadian citizen born and raised in Thailand, Kevin Morse is in the second year of the PhD program in Music Composition at Western. He studies the creation of contemporary art music, with particular interests in opera and music in global contexts.
His research examines the ways in which the arts of Thailand interpret the country's national epic legend, the Ramakien, to articulate unique social, cultural and philosophical values. Morse is an active composer, whose recent portfolio includes include two short operas commissioned by Tapestry New Opera Works.
"We are delighted that six Western students have been recognized with what is certainly one of the most generous and prestigious scholarships available in Canada," says Western President Paul Davenport. "High calibre, dedicated doctoral students are critical to Western's mission, and to Canada's future and these individuals will be shaping our world in the future."
Taken from: communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/.
