CCNY chemical engineer and GAANN grant recipient David Rumschitzki will train seven PhD students over the next three years. Rumschitzki in his lab with two assistants, Ruipeng Xu (left) and Shana Ravvin.
Bolstering the expertise in a U.S. Department of Education identified area of national need and three of its sub-areas, City College of New York chemical engineer David Rumschitzki is the recipient of more than $1million to train seven PhDs in the field over three years. The funding comprises a $900K Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) grant from the U.S. Department of Education and $150K in supplementary support from CUNY.
The GAANN award sets up an integrated research and pedagogical program headed by Rumschitzki in City College’s Grove School of Engineering. Running through Sept. 30, 2021, the program will train future PhD chemical engineers in the three sub-focus areas: materials, energy production/storage, and interfacial science/engineering.
The grant pays for six students per year for three years with CUNY supporting one additional student per year for three years. The support includes $34,000 per student per year in stipends, in addition to tuition, health insurance and some money for supplies. Focus will be on recruiting female students and students from underrepresented groups, although the only hard eligibility criterion is that the students be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Harlem-based City College is designated a Hispanic Serving Institution of Higher Education by the U.S. Dept. of Education.
“Earning this GAANN award as we celebrate our centennial is affirmation that the Grove School can compete with the best schools in the country -- It’s a vote of confidence by both reviewers and the U.S. Dept. of Education that we have a first rate PhD program in chemical engineering,” said Rumschitzki.
He noted the strong support of CUNY interim Vice-Chancellor Dan McCloskey, CCNY president Vince Boudreau, interim provost Tony Liss, Grove School dean Gilda Barabino and chair of chemical engineering Ilona Kretzschmar. He also stressed that it was only possible to bring this application together so quickly because of the close cooperation of his chemical engineering faculty colleague Charles Maldarelli in preparing the winning GAANN proposal and getting the program started.
“Everyone has pitched in enthusiastically to make this a success,” said Rumschitzki.
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