George Washington Carver Fellow

One such student is doctoral candidate Ashlee Colbert, who was selected for the George Washington Carver Fellowship to fund her research in neuro-engineering for up to five years.

Colbert, who studied engineering at Florida A&M University, became interested in biomedical engineering when she studied biological blockers for Alzheimer’s disease at the University of Mississippi through an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates grant focusing on physical chemistry.

 “The research I’d done before was all computational, so it was really exciting to see something physical instead of looking at proteins on a screen,” she says.

This experience sparked Colbert’s interest in neuro-engineering and fueled her drive for using engineering to help others in the medical field. For Colbert, receiving the George Washington Carver Fellowship has dual meaning.

“It played a significant role in me going to college to pursue research,” she explains. “It’s also really exciting that I was chosen to represent that aspect of diversity in biomedical engineering.”

NSF Graduate Fellowship

For Alycia Berman, winning the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship gives her the opportunity to pursue her passion: research.

“This year, I’m working in a cardiovascular lab on the Purdue campus in West Lafayette where I get to see new technology and have experiences that would not have been possible otherwise,” she says. “Next year, I’ll go back to the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis where my advisor, Dr. Joseph Wallace, is located and continue my research.”

Berman is a first-year PhD candidate researching how muscle contraction can provide a stimulus to strengthen bones.

“Purdue and the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering have a very strong engineering name and presence,” she says. “When you couple that with other collaborations, it provides a strong base for future work.”

Berman also is the recipient of the prestigious Purdue Doctoral Fellowship. She will use this funding for her final years of graduate school before receiving her degree from Purdue.  

Whitaker Award to study global health

Exciting research opportunities were made available to PhD student Taylor Moehling, a recipient of the Whitaker International Summer Program Grant.

Moehling’s research on cholera detection in the water of developing countries took her to Haiti this past summer where she learned about traditional techniques for culturing the bacteria. Her findings will help her create a tool to provide accurate and more efficient cholera test results.

“My overarching goal is to create this rapid analytical tool to detect cholera in water in under an hour, rather than in three days,” she says.

After she develops the testing tool, Moehling will return to Haiti to provide device implementation and training. She hopes it will be possible to manufacture the device in Haiti to provide more jobs in the country.

“I’m hoping that non-governmental organizations or government officials would use this to actually treat the water and then test it again afterward to make sure it really is treated,” she says.

Photo: Taylor Moehling, back row, third from left, with lab partners in Haiti.

Other recent NSF award winners in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering include:

Elizabeth Phillips. Phillips received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to discover methods for improving bacterial infection diagnoses at the point-of-care through the development of low-cost diagnostic devices. Her research, also funded by Purdue’s Global Engineering Program, has allowed her to collaborate with AMPATH, a group of North American academic health centers led by Indiana University that provide holistic, patient-centered healthcare to Kenya.

Carmen Gondhalekar. Gondhalekar received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to examine chemical and biohazard detection using spark- and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with the goal of creating a low-cost portable detection system to determine food contamination. She also brings awareness of BME research to the West Lafayette community through co-hosting a biweekly outreach program.

Rachel Morrison. Morrison received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to explore methods for replacing destroyed pancreatic cells with protected insulin-producing cells to combat Type I Diabetes. The goal is to eliminate the need for insulin injections and reduce complications of the disease.