Five NDSU students have received Doctoral Dissertation Awards through the North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, known as ND EPSCoR. The recipients will receive stipend support ranging from nine to 24 months, totaling more than $122,000. A total of 21 students competed for the awards. 

The program is designed to increase the completion rate of doctoral students enrolled in the science, engineering and mathematics disciplines at North Dakota’s two research-intensive universities; and to increase the number of competitive proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation.

Student recipients, their departments and advisers at NDSU are:

• Jaime Jensen, chemistry and biochemistry, Christopher Colbert
• Sajid Asif, electrical and computer engineering, Benjamin Braaten
• Prajakta Kulkarni, pharmaceutical sciences, Sanku Mallik
• Matthew Semler, physics, Erik Hobbie
• Jonathan Richards, plant pathology, Robert Bruggeman

ND EPSCoR is a federally and state funded program designed to help university researchers compete more effectively for federal, regional and private research grants in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. For more information, visit www.ndepscor.nodak.edu.