An MSU graduate student recently was honored for his research regarding the containment of oil spills.
The National Center for Institutional Diversity and Institute for Social Research awarded environmental engineering graduate student Claudio Calderon with the 2013 Exemplary Summer Research Citation. Calderon was awarded for his summer research project on how oil behaves as it is dispersed in water.
Calderon said he wanted to make membranes used for cleaning up oil spills more effective and find out what happens when membranes are in a hydrocyclone, a device that is used to classify or sort particles that are in liquid.
“When I worked (on) that project, I came to like it,” Calderon said. “They gave me some other projects, but I like it because it’s about biological agents.”
Calderon achieved recognition through his participation in the Summer Research Opportunities Program last summer. The program is available at Big Ten universities and gives undergraduate students an opportunity to get involved in graduate-level research in order to better understand what graduate study is like at a Big Ten school.
Calderon said his work with the program is what made him decide to attend graduate school. He said he applied to graduate school at MSU because he enjoys research and enjoys the research team that he worked with.
Calderon is in his first semester of graduate school at MSU and wants to do his own research after he graduates.
Program Manager Steven Thomas’ duties include selecting students for the program and handling the relations between MSU faculty and the program. Thomas said students are chosen based on their GPA, which on average is about a 3.5, recommendations students received from their undergraduate advisers and whether or not their research interests are matched to the research being done at MSU.
“We see them as potential graduate school applicants,” Thomas said.
The program often is considered an avenue to help them transition to graduate-level studies. Participants have a mentor to guide them through their research.
Calderon said his mentor, civil and environmental engineering professor Volodymyr Tarabara, made the transition much smoother.
“He helped me a lot with the application and the process to come here and get adapted,” Calderon said.
After spending some time with Calderon this past summer, Thomas said Calderon’s work ethic convinced program leaders that he was the right fit.
“I think Claudio is a fine example of what the award represents,” Thomas said. “He is a student who is hard working and industrious.”
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