WSU Faculty Members Receive Investigator Awards

Cecilia Richards and Vaithianathan “Mani” Venkatasubramanian, both Washington State University engineering faculty members, received two of this year’s Investigator Awards from the National Science Foundation to further develop their teaching and research programs.

Of the more than 1,400 nominations, only 197 were chosen nationwide.

Richards is in WSU’s department of mechanical and materials engineering faculty. Her doctoral research focused on combustion in gas turbine engines. She also received an NSF Research Initiation Award to support graduate students working with her on a new research on droplet dispersion in environments such as those created by jet engines.

Venkatasubramanian has developed a comprehensive stability theory of power system dynamics, called the “taxonomy theory,” recognized widely as a major accomplishment by experts studying voltage-stability analysis of large power systems.

Each award includes $25,000 in annual base funding for five years and up to $37,500 of additional NSF money as dollars are matched by private industry.

Jonathan Forrester, a civil engineering technology student at the Oregon Institute of Technology, was named to the President’s List for fall 1994. Forrester is from Rockford.

Lt. David Michael Kilmer recently graduated from Eastern Washington University and was commissioned in the Marine Corps.

Next spring, Kilmer will attend Officer Basic School at Quantico, Va., followed by flight training at Pensicola, Fla.

He is a 1988 graduate of University High School and the son of Phyliss and Max Gerber, Spokane, and Robert and Jeanne Kilmer, Vancouver, Wash.

Ronald L. Major, a Spokane student studying at the University of North Dakota-Lake Region, recently graduated from the school’s peace officer training program.