Thursday, September 28, 2006

Writer/contact: Tiffani Fonseca, 202/942-9283, tfonseca@asmusa.org; Philip Lee Williams, 706/542-8501, phil@franklin.uga.edu

UGA student Yainitza Rodriguez named winner of graduate research fellowship from the American Society of Microbiology

Washington D.C. – The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) has selected Yainitza Rodriguez from the University of Georgia as a 2006-2009 award recipient of the Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship. Rodriguez was awarded a $19,000 annual stipend for up to three years to conduct research.

The Watkins Fellowship seeks to increase the number of graduate students from underrepresented groups completing doctoral degrees in the microbiological sciences.

The program is aimed at highly competitive students who are enrolled in a Ph.D. program and have completed their graduate coursework in the microbiological sciences. Fellows and their mentors are required to be members of ASM.

This year, 28 applications were received and five were awarded. Michelle Momany, associate professor in the department of plant biology, is Rodriguez’s mentor. The title of the research is “Branching in Aspergillus nidulans.” A. nidulans is a filamentous fungus that has been an important research organism for more than half a century.

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest and largest single biological membership organization, with more than 40,000 members worldwide.

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