Promoting Science and Mathematics Through Scholarships

Ten students from Kennesaw State University (KSU) in Georgia were awarded Birla Carbon scholarships for their outstanding research in various fields of science and mathematics.

Promoting Sustainability through education, Birla Carbon awarded ten students from Kennesaw State University (KSU) in Georgia with scholarships for their outstanding research in various fields of science and mathematics. “The Birla Carbon Scholars program at KSU has been a successful initiative towards promoting research and education by Birla Carbon. In its third year, we hope to see the program continue to support students who are keen to discover solutions that will positively impact our society and communities at large,” said Tim Fedrigon, Chief Human Resource Officer at Birla Carbon.

Students actively engaged as collaborators on projects ranging from methods that could potentially yield nanowires, to the use of bioinformatics to detect more accurately E. coli or salmonella contamination in packaged foods, to the remediation of soils contaminated during the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan as part of their projects. Nearly 100 students, faculty, staff and Birla Carbon executives reviewed the posters on display in the KSU Center.

Katerina Slavicinskawas was declared winner of the Birla Carbon Scholars program for her project examining a mineral found in meteorites called schreibersite using infrared light to find traces of phosphate groups.

The University’s College of Science and Mathematics officially recognized all 10 new 2016 Birla Carbon Scholars at the event. The scholars program was developed in April 2014 with a $250,000 pledge from Birla Carbon for a five-year annual gift of $50,000 to support research opportunities for students in Kennesaw State’s College of Science and Mathematics. The program has awarded 30 Kennesaw State students each a $4,000 stipend since 2014.