Benedicth Ukhueduan
Chemistry/Biochemistry
Sophomore
Curiosity is second nature to Benedicth Ukhueduan. As a child in Nigeria, she spent hours looking at bugs, rocks, and plants. She took apart small appliances. She wondered what paint was made of. And, she'll tell you with a smile, she liked to blow things up. "Aerosol cans with matches – wow."
Fast forward ten years or so and Ukhueduan is a sophomore at UMD with a duel major in chemistry and biochemistry. "Chemistry is like life," she said. "It's everything around us, everything we wear. I can make a very full connection with chemistry; that makes it easy for me."
Pouring her energies into her classes, she has become a tenacious student. "School is an opportunity. What you learn, you can take and run with it," she said.
Read more about Benedicth (article written by Kathleen McQuillan-Hofmann, UMD Office of External Relations; October 2012)
The Minnesota Section of the Society of Women Engineer is offering 12 tuition-based scholarships for women students in engineering and computer science.
A copy of the application form for all scholarships offered through the SWE-MN program can be downloaded from the SWE-MN website.
Electronically submitted applications must be sent by midnight on March 15, 2013; mailed applications must be postmarked no later than March 15, 2013.
Applications for these scholarships are judged by a committee of Minnesota SWE professionals who represent different fields of engineering. Applicants are judged on the basis of potential to succeed in an engineering career; communication skills; involvement in extracurricular or community activities and leadership skills shown in those activities; demonstrated work experience and success; and academic success. Recipients to be notified by May 1, with the scholarship monies issued for Fall Semester 2013.
Dr. Kobilka
Brian Kobilka, who graduated Summa Cum Laude from UMD in 1977 with degrees in biology and chemistry, shared the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry for studies of protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals. Such studies are key for developing better drugs. About half of all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them helps scientists develop better drugs.
Kobilka praised his college experience at UMD. "It's in a relatively small campus and I was very comfortable there," he said. "I was able to start research fairly early on with professor Conrad Firling, and that, I think, really started my interest and passion in research."
Kobilka is a Little Falls, Minn., native and says that his experiences as an undergraduate at UMD made him want to pursue a research career.
In 2005, Kobilka was inducted into the SCSE Academy of Science and Engineering. He is now a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Read more on the Nobel Prize website or a Minnesota Public Radio article.
