Date: May 13, 2008

Hofstra Student Wins National Science Foundation Grant, Full Scholarship to Princeton

David Miller to pursue research in environmental engineering

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY –Senior David Miller of East Meadow, who worked on three significant research projects while at Hofstra, has received a three-year National Science Foundation grant to conduct research in environmental engineering.

David, an applied physics major with a concentration in engineering and a Phi Beta Kappa member, also won a full scholarship to Princeton University for his Ph.D. tract. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program grant totals $40,500 a year for three years, of which $30,000 goes to David for living expenses and $10,500 goes to Princeton to offset educational expenses. 

David, who recently gave his oral presentation for Hofstra University Honors College on “Applying Physics to the Environment: Measuring Atmospheric Organic Nitrogen Deposition and Assessing Human Influences,” said the exact nature of his research at Princeton will be determined once he meets with his advisors at the college.

"I feel extremely honored to be receiving such a fellowship," David said. "It will give me the opportunity to contribute, in my own way, to solving the multifaceted environmental problems the world currently faces through meaningful and desperately needed environmental research. I believe these solutions must eventually be harnessed to achieve sustainability because the costs of environmental degradation to our planet are simply too large if we look the other way."

"The highly competitive NSF Graduate Fellowships are awarded to the most promising science students in the United States at the beginning of their graduate careers,"” said Harold M. Hastings, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. "The NSF Graduate Fellowship program is designed to recognize their outstanding achievement and to provide full support for research-intensive graduate study.  David Miller received this award in recognition of his scholarly and research accomplishments."

Dr. Hastings said that David's research projects were his senior honors project in environmental engineering under Engineering Professor Margaret Hunter; quantum theory under Physics Professor Gregory Levine as part of Professor Levine's Research Corporation grant; and chemical physics under Chemistry Professor Sabrina Sobel and Dr. Hastings as part of their NSF grant. 

"The award of a NSF Graduate Fellowship to David is a significant accomplishment for David and a significant recognition for the Physics and Astronomy program at Hofstra," said Dr. Hastings.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of about $6.06 billion, it is the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students can choose from about 145 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 22 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis.