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Congratulations!
 
  We congratulate David Sellers who received a coveted National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship which begins this fall semester. This is the first time that the fellowship has been awarded to a chemistry student at Western Michigan University, and the second time that it has been given to a WMU graduate student since the program began sixty years ago. David joined the Department of Chemistry in 2011 and began pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the Schoffers research lab in the area of synthetic organic and supramolecular chemistry. Focus evolves around sensor and catalyst design. The NSF grant will pay tuition and stipend for up to three years. Of the ca 2000 applications received in 2011, 153 were awarded in Chemistry, of which 5 were given to graduate students at Michigan universities (four to the University of Michigan and one to WMU). This NSF program exists since 1952. The first award to a graduate student at WMU was given in 1969 when Michael Domjan (Psychology) became a fellow. Additional information is listed below.
   
 
Brief Biography
 


David Sellers, Ph.D. Student
Department of Chemistry

  David Sellers graduated from Ogemaw Heights High School (West Branch, MI) in 2005. He completed an honors thesis with Dr. Bruce Baldwin at Spring Arbor University (Spring Arbor, MI) and received his B.A. degree in 2009. After graduation, David volunteered with "Resource Development International - Cambodia" for five months and then became an adjunct faculty member at Spring Arbor University before joining the graduate program in the Department of Chemistry at WMU. He is currently working in synthetic organic and supramolecular chemistry under the direction of Dr. Elke Schoffers.
   
 
NSF Fellowship
  Since 1952, NSF has funded over 46,500 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants.  More than 30 of them have gone on to become Nobel laureates, and more than 440 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.  Below find a table of all Graduate Institutions that received the fellowship for their student(s).
 
2011 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Awards given to graduate students in CHEMISTRY:
Proposed Graduate Institution
Number of Awardees
California Institute of Technology
14
Clemson University
1
Columbia University
7
Cornell University
3
Florida Atlantic University
1
Georgetown University
1
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
1
Harvard University
8
Louisiana State University & Agricultural and Mechanical College
1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10
New York University
1
Northwestern University
13
Ohio State University
1
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
1
Princeton University
5
Rockefeller University
1
Stanford University
8
Texas A&M University Main Campus
1
The Scripps Research Institute
6
University of Arizona
1
University of California-Berkeley
16
University of California-Davis
1
University of California-Irvine
2
University of California-Los Angeles
1
University of California-San Diego
3
University of California-San Francisco
1
University of Chicago
3
University of Colorado at Boulder
1
University of Florida
2
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
5
University of Maryland College Park
2
University of Michigan Ann Arbor
4
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
1
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
5
University of Notre Dame
1
University of Oregon Eugene
1
University of Southern California
2
University of Texas at Austin
1
University of Utah
1
University of Washington
1
University of Wisconsin-Madison
7
Vanderbilt University
1
Western Michigan University
1
William Marsh Rice University
2
Yale University
3

In 2011: 2,000 Awards, 12,000 Applications
(~17% Success Rate)
More information can be found at http://www.nsfgrfp.org/
 

 
  Group News here
  Dr. Schoffers' Vita here
  Research Openings here
  Email Dr. Schoffers here