K-State graduate students receive prestigious excellence awards
Friday, Sept. 29, 2023
MANHATTAN — Three Kansas State University doctoral students have been awarded the University Distinguished Professors Excellence in Doctoral Studies Award for their outstanding achievements in academic and scholarly work from the university's highest-ranking professors.
The winners are Andrew Horn, doctoral candidate in kinesiology, Wellington; Fan Liu, doctoral candidate in chemical engineering, Anhui, China; and Sabita Ranabhat, doctoral candidate in entomology, Chitwan,Nepal.
The awards recognize doctoral candidates who have accomplished exceptional achievements in graduate studies. These doctoral students demonstrated excellence in scholarship through publications and other accomplishments suitable for their academic field. The University Distinguished Professors group established guidelines and criteria to evaluate candidates and partnered with the Graduate School to coordinate the selection process.
The goal of Horn's dissertation research is to significantly advance our knowledge of diaphragm vascular function in health and disease.
"By focusing on the underlying pathology, blood vessels, it would open a new window into therapeutic targets to improve respiratory muscle functions and enhance the quality of life in aged individuals, heart failure patients, and mechanically ventilated patients, such as those with severe COVID-19," Horn said. "Diaphragm dysfunction is prevalent in advanced age as well as heart failure and mechanically ventilated patients, which increases the risk of respiratory muscle failure and premature death. The underlying cause of this diaphragm dysfunction is related to impaired blood vessel function in the diaphragm, which limits the blood flow and oxygen needed to support proper diaphragm contraction."
Horn received a $2,400 award to recognize his outstanding doctoral work. His major professors are Brad Behnke, professor of kinesiology, and David Poole, university distinguished professor of kinesiology and physiology. View a brief video summary of Horn's research.
Liu's research focuses on the development of advanced materials for energy conversion and storage with high efficiency and durable operation. According to Liu, it's essential to explore sustainable sources of energy to reduce the carbon footprint and mitigate the impact of climate change.
"This project involves a meticulous investigation of advanced materials tailored for various applications, including packed bed reactors, solid oxide electrochemical cells, or SOECs, and protonic ceramic electrochemical cells, or PCECs," Liu said. "All these technologies are geared toward electricity generation, green hydrogen production, carbon dioxide conversion and valuable chemical manufacturing."
The goal of Liu's research is to reduce the cost and enhance the efficiency and durability of these technologies. With his research, Liu says he aspires to make a meaningful contribution to the development of a more sustainable energy future.
Liu received a $2,400 award to recognize his outstanding doctoral work. Liu's major professor is Chuancheng Duan, assistant professor of chemical engineering. View a brief video summary of Liu's research.
The primary focus of Ranabhat's research is the development of sustainable, cost-effective methods for diversifying the management of stored product beetles and moths that attack food after harvest. According to Ranabhat, stored product insects result in food facilities losing 10-30% of the harvested crops as they're stored, transported, marketed and processed, which results in more than $100 billion in economic losses around the world.
Ranabhat said she has been working on a way to integrate long-lasting insecticide netting into pest management programs at food facilities, which can reduce the need to fumigate between 50-100% in bulk storage while combatting phosphine-resistant insect populations.
"The netting can be used to cover the vents and openings or otherwise to intercept insects as they try to infest goods from the landscape," she said. "It confines insecticide use to the net and away from commodities and minimizes product exposure to insecticides."
Ranabhat received a $2,400 award to recognize her outstanding doctoral work. Ranabhat is co-advised by Kun Yan Zhu, university distinguished professor of entomology, and Rob Morrison, adjunct professor of entomology. View a brief video summary of Ranabhat's research.
University distinguished professors Brian Geisbrecht, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, David Poole, kinesiology, and Caterina Scoglio, electrical and computer engineering, served on the award selection committee.
"Evaluation of this year's panel of applicants was very difficult, which speaks to the number of highly qualified doctoral candidates completing their degrees here at K-State," said Geisbrecht who chaired the selection committee. "In the end, the committee selected three individuals as our recipients whom we felt presented the most compelling applications across many criteria. The diversity of our recipients' expertise is a testament to the broad research strengths here at our university."
The awards are made possible through a combination of donations from individual university distinguished professors and external donors.
