Summer Assistantships and Fall Fellowships Recipients Announced

The 2015 Summer Assistantship has been awarded to Caitlin Francis, first year M.S. student with a biomechanics emphasis. Caitlin received her Bachelor of science in biology from Radford University in 2012. Her current research focuses on spine biomechanics in both active and sedentary people with different occupational lifestyles. Under assistant professor Dr. Yang-Chieh Fu’s supervision, Francis is working on her master proposal, and planning pilot testing for her thesis project. She will propose her study this summer and plans to complete her M.S. degree in Spring of 2016.

Vinayak K. Nahar will be awarded the Dissertation Fellowship for Fall 2015. He will be a fourth year doctoral student in health and kinesiology with an emphasis in health behavior and promotion. Vinayak currently holds a master’s degree in health promotion from UM. His primary research is in identifying the relationships between psychosocial factors and skin cancer prevention behaviors across the various population groups at risk. To date, Vinayak has published several peer reviewed articles and has been awarded numerous awards at Ole Miss such as the Leon Garrett Achievement Award and first place in the Graduate Student Council Poster Presentation.