Gregory selected for IGERT fellowship at Vanderbilt

Lipscomb University senior Justin Gregory has been selected to participate in an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training fellowship in nanoscience research at Vanderbilt University beginning this fall.

 

Gregory, a physics major from Cocoa, Fla., is the first Lipscomb student to be selected to participate in this IGERT fellowship at Vanderbilt.

 

“I am excited about the opportunity to be involved in this research project. There is some really good research work going on there and I am looking forward to being involved in it,” said Gregory.

 

Gregory said the fellowship is a two-and-a-half year program that he discovered while an intern at Vanderbilt last summer.

 

The IGERT fellowship was initiated by the National Science Foundation in 1997 and is comprised of approximately 125 award sites. The IGERT program has been developed to meet the challenges of educating scientists, engineers and educators with the interdisciplinary backgrounds, deep knowledge in chosen disciplines and technical, professional and personal skills to become in their own careers the leaders and creative agents for change. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education, for students, faculty and institutions, by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

 

The fellowship that Gregory will work in is the Vanderbilt *Fisk Interdisciplinary Program for Research and Education in the Nanosciences. This Ph.D. program will give students cross-disciplinary immersion in the nanoscale field that includes various departments at Vanderbilt. Special features of the IGERT curriculum include involvement in interdisciplinary nanoscience research projects, modular course selection for even greater curriculum flexibility and a one to six month internship experience with industry, national laboratories or international partners.

 

Gregory’s love of research has been evident to his professors at Lipscomb.

 

“Justin is an excellent student with initiative and the ability to work independently to solve problems. For example, as part of Justin’s Senior Project he worked with a team of engineering students to design a system for NASA to support rockets during vibration testing. Justin’s part of the project was to determine the feasibility of using magnetic forces to control horizontal motion of the rockets. Justin taught himself how to use a sophisticated computer program that calculated the forces between magnetic components of the system in order to determine if a system like this, that has never been used, would improve on conventional systems. Justin designed and considered several increasingly more complex configurations to improve stability,” said Fletcher Srygley, professor of physics at Lipscomb.

 

Physics Professor Ralph Butler said Gregory enjoys learning all he can about physics.

 

“He enjoys digging deeply into the basic principles of nature and has great insight into how the principles relate to practical applications. In addition to being an excellent student, Justin has demonstrated his leadership skills by serving as president this year for the Lipscomb Chapter of the Society of Physics Students. I expect he will be very successful at Vanderbilt and beyond,” said Butler.

 

Although Gregory won’t officially join the IGERT fellowship until fall, he will begin research at Vanderbilt this summer. He said he hopes to pursue a career in research or teaching and looks to this experience to help shape his future goals.