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Helping Students Reach for the Stars

Graduate Fellowships Benefit Students and Donors
s the new Bioscience
Research Building comes on line this fall, Maryland
has a powerful new magnet to attract top faculty and researchers. And with
nearly $500,000 raised so far to support fellowships in the chemical and
life sciences, prospects for recruiting more top-notch graduate students
are very bright.
After successfully defending his dissertation in August, Aydin Haririnia, Ph.D.
'07 is now a scientific advisor at a prominent Washington, D.C. patent law firm.
He credits his mentor Professor David Fushman, timely support from the Kraybill
Fellowship in his last year and earlier funding from the William J. Bailey Fellowship
for providing the foundation to accomplish his goal. "The fellowship really inspired
me to achieve more in my research," Haririnia said, "and future students will
also appreciate how much it relieves financial pressure so you can remain focused
on the work."
 | | Herman Kraybill, seated with Saranga Naganathan, a recipient of his fellowship along with Aydin Haririnia and Athi Naganathan (standing). |
Herman F. Kraybill M.S. '38, Ph.D. '41, a retired biochemist who worked for years
with the National Institutes of Health, Environmental Cancer Program, says he
is very much committed to supporting students who are today breaking new ground
in research closely linked to biomedical advances. "That
is where the breakthroughs are coming that will turn the medical field around," he
says. "I look forward to talking with my students; to hear deep discussions about
their work. For me, it's like going back to school."
Close interaction with fellowship recipients is a common theme among donors to
the College of Chemical and Life Sciences. Edna O. Hokenson Ph.D. '66, who created
an endowed fellowship before her death in 2005, was known for adopting fellowship
recipients into her life and she becoming a part of theirs.
Having lost both her husband and her son to cancer, Hokenson became dedicated
to her fellowship students in microbiology and immunology, says her niece Becky
Stattelman. Hokenson also "adopted" engineering students who received a fellowship
she established in aerospace engineering to honor her son Gustav J. Hokenson
Ph.D. '70.
"These students became the largest, positive thing left in her life." says Stattelman. She says her aunt was excited about science and research and saw her fellowships as a way to continue the progression of her passion even beyond her lifetime. "It provided for an extension of who she was and even the possible achievement of some of the work she didn't get a chance to do."
Ellen O'Connor '01, Ph.D. '06, the first recipient of the Dr.
Edna O. Hokenson Endowed Fellowship, is a researcher with MedImmune, a Maryland-based
biotechnology firm focused on developing new medicines and products to treat
infectious diseases, cancer and inflammatory diseases.
To honor Hokenson's passion, Stattelman personally committed her $20,000 inheritance
to the fellowship in microbiology and immunology and attended the opening of
the new Bioscience Research Building this month. "Aunt
Edna was really excited about the progress the college is making and would have
been very proud of this new facility," she said.
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