June 21, 2006
Clark University selects 2006-07 HERO Research Fellows
Worcester, Mass. - The Human Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) Fellowship program at Clark University has named its 2006-07 Fellows. With an incoming class of nine students and a mean GPA of 3.7, HERO's tradition of attracting some of Clark's best and brightest students continues. The students, who represent a diverse academic grouping hailing from disciplines across the scholarly spectrum, are well into their summer research projects and can often be found in the Geography Building labs this summer.
The 2006-07 HERO Fellows are: John Connors '06, pursuing a master's degree; Kate Del Vecchio '07; Dawn Gedenberg '07; Joe Fortier '07; Ryan Frazier '06, pursuing a master's degree; Paula Kiviranta '08, a native of Finland and undergraduate Fulbright Scholar; Dominic Pascarelli '08; Nagraj Rao '08, also conducting Anton and Steinbrecher Fellowship research on "Vedic Mathematics" in India; and Alina Taus '08, a native of Romania.
Initiated at the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University, the HERO research program provides opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to analyze the causes and consequences of global environmental changes at local scales in faculty-led research projects. This program leverages links with students, researchers, advocates, and policy makers in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Arizona.
Clark graduate students Christopher City (geography), Kevin Keenan (geography), and Mahesh Ramachandran (economics) assist the HERO program. Faculty members include Colin Polsky (geography), R. Gil Pontius (geography and IDCE); John Rogan (geography), and School of Geography Director B.L. Turner, II.
Professor Polsky, who directs the HERO program, was interviewed for a feature in the Clark student newspaper The Scarlet: "HERO is all about doing research in an active learning format," he said. "The program here has existing research connections to researchers and policy-makers." (To read Scott Berghegger's ('07) article about the HERO program at Clark, go to http://www.clarku.edu/departments/hero/pdfs/stellar_students_become_heros.pdf .)
HERO program sponsors include: the National Science Foundation; the John T. O'Connor '78 Endowed Fund for Environmental Studies; George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University; and the Culpeper Foundation.
To learn more about the HERO program and its people, visit online http://www.clarku.edu/departments/hero. For additional information contact Professor Polsky at cpolsky@clarku.edu.