School Notes: Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
May/June 2016

Fellowships enable international research in humanities, social sciences

Beginning this summer, all PhD students in the humanities and social sciences will be eligible to receive up to $18,000 to support their field research outside the United States, through a MacMillan International Dissertation Research Fellowship. Fellowships will help defray the cost of travel, research, and living expenses. Dean Lynn Cooley, the C. N. H. Long Professor of Genetics, calls these new international dissertation research fellowships “a real ‘game changer’ for our students, making possible the development and realization of often difficult and expensive international research leading towards the degree and beyond.”

Portrait of Yale’s first women PhDs

Yale Graduate School, the oldest in North America, was originally an all-male bastion when it was established in 1847. Then, in 1892, the Graduate School admitted 23 women as students in full standing, and in 1894, the first seven of them were awarded their PhD degrees. The Yale Women Faculty Forum commissioned a portrait of these trailblazing scholars and scientists, which was unveiled in the Sterling Memorial Library nave on April 5. The painting is the work of Brooklyn-based artist Brenda Zlamany. Cochairing the project were Paula Kavathas, professor of laboratory medicine and immunobiology and chair of the Women Faculty Forum, and Laura Wexler, professor of American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. (See Last Look for an image of the portrait.) 

Bromley Fellow combines research and volunteering

Alexandru Georgescu (physics) is this year’s D. Allan  Bromley Graduate Fellow. The fellowship was established by alumni in 2005 to honor Bromley (1926–2005), who was the Sterling Professor of the Sciences and science adviser to President George H. W. Bush. It is awarded annually to a student “who exhibits a broader interest than just physics, including, but not limited to, science and public policy, engineering, and applied science.” Georgescu studies the quantum mechanics of condensed matter (solids and liquids), advised by Sohrab Ismail-Beigi. He is also involved in science education and community service and has given lectures and led experiments for the SCHOLAR program for high school students. He has mentored K–12 students with their science fair projects and served as outreach liaison for the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at Yale and Southern Connecticut State University.