Schlumberger fellowships go to two engineering doctoral students

BY DWIGHT DANIELS
Special to Rice News

Two George R. Brown School of Engineering students have received Schlumberger research fellowships.

	SAMANTHA SUMMERSON		DREW BRYANT

Samantha Summerson, a doctoral student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Student Chapter and Women Excel Schlumberger Fellowship. Drew Bryant, a doctoral student in computer science, was awarded the Rice University Computer Science Club and ”CSters” Schlumberger Fellowship.

Summerson received a master’s degree from Rice in ECE in 2010 and has been doing research in Center for Multimedia Communications. She plans to complete her doctorate by 2013. She is interested in research on wireless networks, cooperative networks and information theory. The student from Carpinteria, Calif., earlier won a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and a Texas Instruments Distinguished Graduate Fellowship, among other honors.

She earlier studied at University of California-Berkeley, where she received a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics with honors. She plans to pursue a career as a university professor.

Bryant earned a master’s degree in computer science in 2010 at Rice, along with a Rice bachelor’s degree in bioengineering in 2007. He too earlier won an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and various other awards and scholarships.

The native of Fort Worth, Texas said he hopes to work within the bioinformatics field within biotechnology after completing his studies.

Both fellowships are administered by Rice’s Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology.

Jan Odegard, the institute’s executive director, said the Schlumberger fellowships are among the most highly sought after at Rice.

”These are two wonderful students who greatly deserve this honor,” Odegard said.

The fellowships are based on academic achievements and honors, extracurricular activities, professional activities and leadership potential, along with interest in graduate studies. Each student receives $5,000.

Schlumberger, a French firm with operations throughout the globe, is a leading oilfield services provider.

The Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology is a research-centric institute dedicated to the advancement of applied interdisciplinary research in the areas of computation and information technology.

—Dwight Daniels is a science writer in the George R. Brown School of Engineering.