Phoenix Awards Presented to Students, Faculty

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Dr. Mark Payton, associate dean of the OSU Graduate College, congratulated the 2010 Phoenix Award winners at the recent awards ceremony. Winners were Dr. Diane Montgomery, Regents Professor of Applied Health and Educational Psychology, Outstanding Faculty Award; Hui Ju Park, Outstanding Doctoral Student; and Nazia Tabassum, Outstanding Master’s Student.
Nazia Tabassum of Ryadh, India, and Hui Ju Park of Kangnamgu, South Korea, were recently honored at the 28th annual Phoenix Awards with the highest awards given to graduate students by Oklahoma State University’s Graduate and Professional Student Government Association and the OSU Graduate College.

Also honored was the Outstanding Faculty Member, Dr. Diane Montgomery, Regents Professor of Applied Health and Educational Psychology.

A special award was presented to Dr. Michael Smolen, professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering, for his service as adviser to the GPSGA.

The Phoenix Awards recognize exemplary achievement in leadership, scholarship, professional involvement, and university and community service, especially involvement with graduate students. It is the highest honor presented by the association.

The awards are open to all OSU graduate students and faculty. Faculty members nominate the students for the outstanding master’s and doctoral student award, and graduate students nominate faculty members for the outstanding faculty award.

Tabassum, a biochemistry and molecular biology graduate student, was named the Outstanding Master’s Student, and Park, a design, housing and merchandising doctoral student, was named the Outstanding Doctoral Student.

Tabassum and Park were presented with certificates and $750 prizes, and their names will be engraved on the Phoenix Awards plaque located outside the Graduate College offices in Whitehurst Hall.

Finalists for this year’s master’s award were Kelly Stiller Titchener, Tulsa geography graduate student, and Sarah Blackburn-Ellis of Stillwater, who received her master’s degree in educational psychology in December. Finalists for the doctoral award were Brandi Coyner, Stillwater zoology doctoral student, and Benjamin Houltberg, Tulsa doctoral student in human development and family science.

Faculty award finalists were Dr. Lowell Caneday, professor of applied health and educational psychology, and Dr. G. Allen Finchum, associate professor of geography.

Christy Ng, hotel and restaurant doctoral student from Temerloh, Malaysia, received the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award and was presented with a check for $200 and a certificate by Provost and Senior Vice President Marlene Strathe. A circulating plaque with her name engraved will be housed in the College of Human Environmental Sciences for the next year.

Finalists for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards were Ng; Trisha Dubie, Stillwater, entomology and plant pathology; and Vladimira Sykova of Klatovy, Czech Republic, nutritional sciences. Both received certificates.

College winners for the award were Garrett V. Coble, Tulsa, marketing; Jennifer L. Burtka, Allen Park, Mich., zoology; Pradyuamna Baviskar, Dist Jalgao, India, veterinary biomedical sciences; Stacey Bridges, Stillwater, educational psychology; and Sandeep Srivathsan, Chennai, India, industrial engineering and management.