Four students from North Dakota baccalaureate universities will attend NDSU as recipients of Graduate Student Research Assistantship Awards from North Dakota Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Awards are for stipend support of more than $18,000 per student annually for two years.

Awardees, their alma maters and their areas of graduate studies at NDSU are:

Brandon Elkins, Dickinson State University – rangeland management

Steven Fasching, Valley City State University – natural resource management

Travis Leedahl, Mayville State University – biochemistry

Ryan McCulloch, Valley City State University – computer science

The Graduate Student Research Assistantship program is designed to increase the opportunities for graduating seniors from the North Dakota University System baccalaureate universities to obtain master's and doctoral degrees in science, engineering and mathematics at NDSU and the University of North Dakota.

North Dakota EPSCoR is a federally and state funded program designed to improve the ability of university researchers to compete more effectively for federal, regional and private research grants in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. For more information, go to www.ndepscor.nodak.edu/programs.