Hope College senior Katherine Drake of Rochester Hills has received a Graduate Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The highly-competitive fellowships are awarded to
students pursuing doctorates in the sciences, and Drake
received one of 766 awarded nationwide. The fellowships pay
tuition and fees of up to $9,500 and a stipend of $15,000
each year for three years.
Also receiving one of the fellowships was 1997
Hope graduate Laura Listenberger, a chemistry major with a
biochemistry emphasis currently doing graduate work at
Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. In addition, two
Hope seniors received "Honorable Mentions" from the
fellowship program: Elayne Provost, a biology major from
Allen Park, and Mike Van Opstall, a mathematics major from
Hudsonville.
Several graduating Hope seniors have received the
fellowships through the years. Those honored in the current
decade include Joshua Levy in 1997, Rychard Bouwens in 1994,
James Loats in 1991 and Thomas Prins in 1990.
Drake is a chemistry, mathematics and physics
triple major at Hope.
Her primary academic and research interest is in
the blending of chemistry and physics. She has been working
with other researchers in nuclear chemistry/nuclear physics
at Hope since her freshman year. She has conducted research
on parallel plate avalanche counters at the National
Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, in a collaboration
between Hope College and Michigan State University.
In February, Drake was named to the 1998 All-USA
College Academic Team by "USA TODAY." Drake, who was named
to the publication's "Second Team," was one of only 115
college and university students nationwide included in the
listing, which named 20 students each to First, Second or
Third teams, and 55 Honorable Mentions. Those recognized
were listed in the newspaper's Friday, Feb. 13, 1998, issue.
In the early spring of 1997, she received a
Goldwater Scholarship for the 1997-98 academic year, one of
only 11 students native to Michigan and 282 nationwide to
receive one. In April of 1997, she was one of only 40
students from around the nation to participate in a Council
on Undergraduate Research (CUR) poster session research
presentation on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Recognition for her work has also included the
college's freshman chemistry and physics awards, the John H.
Kleinheksel Mathematics Award and the Junior Chemistry
Journal Award. She is a member of the college's chapter of Mortar
Board, as well as the campus mathematics and physics honorary
societies.
She is the daughter of Michael and Ann Drake of
Rochester Hills. She is a 1994 graduate of Rochester High
School.