NDSEG Awards
September 10,2013
Venessa Murray
Two National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships were awarded
to graduate students, Vanessa Murray and Benjamin Schwarz. These highly competitive
fellowships sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense are only offered to 200 students
every year and provide tuition, fees and stipend support for up to three years. Our
Department is fortunate to have two outstanding students selected given the nearly
3000 applications to this fellowship program. Ms. Murray, who is from Craig, Colorado,
received her BS in chemical engineering from Montana State University in 2011 and
is a PhD student in chemistry working in the laboratory of Professor Tim Minton.
She was highlighted in an April MSU news release. Read her inspiring story..
Benjamin Schwartz
Mr. Schwarz, who is from Bend, Oregon, received his BS in biochemistry from Gonzaga
University in 2011. He is a PhD student in biochemistry working in the laboratory
of Regents Professor Trevor Douglas. Mr. Schwarz’s research focuses on developing
efficient biomimetic technologies using virus-like particles (VLP) as encapsulation
platforms for enzymes. This strategy sequesters an enzyme in high copy number, avoiding
the cost and labor involved in purifying enzymes. The long term goal of this research
is to develop this technology for use as a model for the study of metabolic pathways.
Mr. Schwarz has a publication in this area already and another paper currently under
review: Patterson DP, Schwarz B, El-Boubou K, Prevelige P, Douglas T (2012) “Virus-like
Particle Nanoreactors: Programmed Encapsulation of the Thermostable CelB Glucosidase
Inside the P22 Capsid.”Soft Matter, 8, 10158-10166..