September 7, 2022

Applications for Spring 2023 Finishing Fellowships are being accepted and are due no later than 4 p.m. Oct. 19 to the Graduate School. Please email applications to gradschool@mtu.edu.

Instructions on the application and evaluation process are found online. Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:

1. Must be a Ph.D. student.
2. Must expect to finish during the semester supported as a Finishing Fellow.
3. Must have submitted no more than one previous application for a Finishing Fellowship.
4. Must be eligible for candidacy (tuition charged at Research Mode rate) at the time of application.
5. Must not hold a final oral examination ("defense") prior to the start of the award semester.

Finishing Fellowships provide support to Ph.D. candidates who are close to completing their degrees. These fellowships are available through the generosity of alumni and friends of the University. They are intended to recognize outstanding Ph.D. candidates who are in need of financial support to finish their degrees and are also contributing to the attainment of goals outlined in the Michigan Tech Strategic Plan.

The Graduate School anticipates funding up to 10 fellowships, with support ranging from $2,000 to full support (stipend plus tuition). Students who receive full support through a Finishing Fellowship may not accept any other employment. For example, students cannot be fully supported by a Finishing Fellowship and accept support as a GTA or GRA.

Staff Council invites and welcomes new members to its annual organizational meeting at noon on Sept. 15 in Library 244. President Rick Koubek will be our guest speaker.

Created in 1991 as a service organization for the University, Staff Council is made up of staff members from all levels at Michigan Tech. It supports activities and resources that provide recognition for staff achievement and opportunities for professional development, and enhance the working environment and campus community.

Staff Council sponsors the Making a Difference Awards, Family Fun Day and the Staff Service Recognition Awards. Members also serve on search committees and help out with other special University initiatives and task forces that require staff representation, create and distribute the Employee Wall Calendar and engage in various other campus activities.

Registration is open for the Michigan Tech Little Huskies Volleyball Club. Overseen by MTU coaches and student-athletes, the club will feature a series of opportunities to learn and experience collegiate-level volleyball right here in the Upper Peninsula.

The club is open to all boys and girls interested in volleyball. Participants will receive free admission to all Tech volleyball home matches with their club T-shirt and can sit in a special cheering section. Members will also participate in post-match clinics and autograph sessions with the 2022 Michigan Tech volleyball Huskies.

The deadline to register for the volleyball club is tomorrow (Sept. 7) at 11:59 p.m.

Find out more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

The North Coast Grill and Deli is now featuring two new food options: 

• American Fresh Sushi Grab and Go
• Zoca Fresh Mexican Cuisine

American Fresh Sushi will be offering fresh made grab-and-go items with many varieties of cooked, raw and veggie rolls, including a salmon roll, California roll, crunchy wasabi roll and many more, with a variety of dipping sauces to go with them.

At Zoca Fresh Mexican, you can get burritos, burritos bowls, tacos and nachos with your choice of fillings made fresh to order.

Try them at the North Coast Grill and Deli in the Memorial Union Building.

The College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (CFRES) welcomes an outstanding young alumna and four inductees to the Honor Academy — meant to recognize graduates who distinguish themselves in their professions.

Congratulations to Bill Perkis ’76 ’79 (B.S., M.S., forestry), Debbie Page-Dumroese ’85 (M.S., forestry), CJ Tsai ’95 (Ph.D., forest science) and Larry Ilcewicz ’77 (B.S., wood science) for their outstanding commitment to our programs, professional leadership and hard work in their professions since their time at Michigan Tech.

CFRES also recognizes Brittany VanderWall ’14 (B.S., forestry) as this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Young Alumni Award. VanderWall has distinguished herself early on in her career, in her community and in her service to Michigan Tech.

Finally, the College thanks the Albee family for their generous scholarship opportunity for CFRES students. Steve Albee passed in 2020 and his dedication to Michigan Tech will be remembered through the endowed scholarship.

The group was celebrated at an induction ceremony held in the Atrium of the U. J. Noblet Forestry Building on Aug. 5 during Alumni Reunion. Interim Dean David Flaspohler announced the awards to nearly 30 other alumni and friends who attended the ceremony.

Congratulations to our award winners and inductees! The College is proud to recognize individuals who make a difference today and help to support and shape our College into the future.

No. 19 Michigan Tech volleyball team suffered a rough start Friday (Sept. 2) at Wisconsin-Parkside's Hampton Inn Invitational, but bounced back to sweep their opponents Saturday (Sept. 3). 

The Huskies lost 3-1 to McKendree on Friday after extreme heat forced the midmatch cancellation of their first contest against Upper Iowa.

"Today was simply not our day," coach Matt Jennings said after the loss. "We were sluggish in our earlier match, which was canceled, and poor tonight in this one. Credit to a good McKendree team that flat-out beat us in nearly every part of the game."

Tech finished the tournament with a pair of sweeps Saturday. The Huskies defeated Illinois-Springfield in the morning and earned their sixth sweep of the season in the evening over Minnesota-Crookston.

"I'm certainly very pleased with the way we bounced back today," Jennings said. "We accomplished what we wanted to do out there and stayed together as a unit to finish it out."

Michigan Tech remains at No. 19 in this week's AVCA Division II Coaches Poll.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Michigan Tech volleyball's Jillian Kuizenga and Janie Grindland were named to the Hampton Inn Invitational All-Tournament Team.

The Huskies went 2-1 at the invite, hosted by Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 2 and 3).

Tech's first match was canceled midmatch due to heat in the gym before the Huskies fell 3-1 to McKendree on Friday. MTU then earned sweeps of Illinois-Springfield and Minnesota-Crookston on Saturday.

Kuizenga led Tech's offense at the tournament, averaging 3.2 kills per set while hitting .301. She added 10 blocks and nine digs.

Grindland hit .470 and averaged two kills per set, 1.3 blocks per set and 1.1 digs per set.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Michigan Tech cross country started the season with a dominant performance at the Vic Godfrey Open on Friday (Sept. 2).

Sam Lange took the individual win in 18:27.7 in the men's race, and both teams topped the podium at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

"We won today by both our men's and women's teams running together in tight groups that were at the front or near the front of the field," head coach Kristina Owen said. "Huskies are best when they run as a pack, and it's a strategy we're going to focus on this season."

Michelle Bollini and Sam Kurkowski led the way for the women, running 14:53.9 and 14:55.5, respectively, for tight third- and fourth-place finishes. They were followed by Elsa Huckels (11th), Hannah Loughlin (14th) and Cedar Gordon (16th).

Finishing a close second and third behind Lange in the men's race were Clayton Sayen (18:30.9) and Drew Kolodge (18:33.8).

"Our men showed their depth and absolutely crushed it, running 1-2-3-8-10 for our scoring five," Owen said. "We had seven men in the top 15 and 13 in the top 25."

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

The Michigan Tech men's and women's cross country teams rank third and fourth, respectively, in the GLIAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

The No. 16 Michigan Tech men were voted third with 53 points, just behind No. 2 Wayne State (54 points) and Grand Valley State (64 points). The women were selected to finish fourth with 52 points behind Wayne State (67 points), Saginaw Valley State (69 points) and Grand Valley State (81 points).

Both the men's and women's squads picked up team wins at the Vic Godfrey Open in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Huskies will return to the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course later this season for the Midwest Regional Championships.

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

One goal was the difference between the Michigan Tech women's soccer victory against Minnesota-Crookston on Friday (Sept. 2) and a tough loss to No. 9 Bemidji State on Sunday (Sept. 4).

The Huskies pleased an electric home crowd at Kearly Stadium on Friday, besting the Golden Eagles 1-0.

Kiersen Korienek scored the game-winning goal off of a corner kick by Anna Syracuse in the first half. Korienek was in the right place at the right time when the ball was kicked deep into the 18-yard box.

"Kiersen is a player that is very good in and around the 18, and she came in and hit the game-winner for us and that was a big deal for us," said head coach Bulut Ozturk. 

Sunday, the Huskies lost a hard-fought game against the Beavers. Despite leading in a majority of statistical categories, Tech was unable to overcome a 1-0 deficit in the first half.

"Today was a breakthrough for my team," said Ozturk. "This is something that is going to really help us and I am incredibly proud of them. There is so much promise and I am very encouraged going forward. We played a full 90 (minutes), giving everything that we had and leaving it all on the field, and as a coach that's all you can ask for."

Read more at the Michigan Tech Athletics website.

Friday (Sept. 9)
• Soccer at Purdue Northwest, 2 p.m.
• Volleyball vs. Davenport, 6 p.m. at the SDC Gym on Mix 93 WKMJ-FM

Saturday (Sept. 10)
• Football at St. Thomas, 2 p.m. on Mix 93 WKMJ
• Volleyball vs. Grand Valley State, 3 p.m. at the SDC Gym on 920 WMPL-AM and 107.3 WMPL-FM

Sunday (Sept. 11)
• Soccer at Parkside, 1 p.m.

Greg Odegard (ME-EM/MARC) is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that has received a $261,618 research and development grant from NASA.

The project is titled "Institute for Ultra-Strong Composites by Computational Design (US-COMP) Extension."

*****

Christo Christov (Chem) is the PI on a project that has received a $282,774 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.

The project is titled "Collaborative Research: Ethylene-Forming Enzyme."

This is a potential three-year project.

Ramy El-Ganainy (Physics) and Ph.D. candidate Amin Hashemi (applied physics) were quoted by Phys.org in a story on their recent publication in Nature Communications.

The study, led by Hashemi, presents a systematic analysis of the linear response of non-Hermitian systems having exceptional points.

*****

John Vucetich (CFRES) was mentioned by the National Parks Traveler podcast in an episode about "Rewilding the American West," a paper published by Vucetich and 19 other authors advocating the return of gray wolves and beavers to federal lands in the region.

Vucetich’s long-running study of wolf-moose interactions through Michigan Tech’s annual winter study on Isle Royale was called out in the story.

*****

WLUC TV6 mentioned Michigan Tech in a story on the upcoming fourth annual GeekU.P. convention, being held at the Memorial Union Building on Saturday (Sept. 10) from noon until 6 p.m.

Visuospatial Thinking Presentation Canceled

The virtual presentation by scholar Zhen Xu, originally planned for today (Sept. 7) at 3 p.m., has been canceled.

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ChE Seminar Series: Bioinspired Multifunctional Materials

Luyi Sun will present the first seminar in the Department of Chemical Engineering (ChE) Fall 2022 Seminar Series.

Sun is a professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and a member of the Polymer Program at the University of Connecticut. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of nanostructured materials for various applications.

Sun will be on campus to present "Bioinspired Smart Bilayered Hybrids with Multi-scale Architecture and Surface Engineering" at 10 a.m. Friday (Sept. 9) in Chem Sci 211 or via Zoom.

Humans have looked to nature for solutions to our problems throughout our existence. In this talk, several bioinspired multifunctional materials — including nanostructured coatings with outstanding mechanical, barrier and flame-retardant properties (inspired by nacre) and highly sensitive and reversible/irreversible mechanochromisms (inspired by cephalopod and skin wrinkles) — will be presented.

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Library and CDI Hosting Study Hours

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) and the J. Robert Van Pelt and John and Ruanne Opie Library are working together this semester to promote academic excellence. The library will hold open library research help hours every other Tuesday and Wednesday from 2-5 p.m., starting this week (Sept. 6 and 7) in Library 244. Librarians will be available during these study sessions and look forward to helping students make the most of the library’s resources.

All students are encouraged to attend to build community, support one another academically and achieve academic success.

For more information, please contact cdi@mtu.edu or library@mtu.edu.

To have your event automatically appear, please submit them to the University Events Calendar.

Chamber Outing

Wednesday, September 7, 9 a.m. | Portage Lake Golf Course

Chamber Outing *Some events and times may change

Georgia-Pacific Day

Wednesday, September 7, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. | Campus Mall, CareerFEST Tent

Come meet representatives from Georgia-Pacific in a casual and relaxed setting. Talk to MTU alumni currently working in the Green Bay Mills, Corporate Engineering and...

How to Network

Wednesday, September 7, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. | Administration and Student Services Building, 220 Career Services

Flag Football

Wednesday, September 7, 4 p.m.–6 p.m. | Walker Lawn

Join the Brother's of Sigma Tau Gamma for a game of Flag Football

Introduction to Design Thinking

Wednesday, September 7, 4 p.m.–6 p.m. | Memorial Union Building (MUB), The Alley Makerspace

Get your creative energy flowing and join us for a design thinking event in which student teams practice innovation skills. Design thinking is a human-centered design process...

Georgia Pacific Presentation and First General Meeting

Wednesday, September 7, 5 p.m.–6 p.m. | MEEM 0112

Join ASME for their first general meeting of the fall 2022 semester to learn more about the club, open leadership positions, and hear from recruiters from Georgia Pacific...