GWIS Donors:
We could have never provided the kind of financial support for fellowships this year’s without your donation to our Fellowships Funds. Ten young women scientists will receive the 2010-2011 GWIS Fellowships. Many would not have been able to continue their proposed research without this additional funding. Therefore, we thank you so much for your support and here’s one of the individuals you helped!

Christina Godfriend Sie, 4th year doctoral student, from Lehigh University’s Biological Sciences in Bethlehem, PA won the Eloise Gerry Fellowship and will use the Fellowship to study “Consequences of RNA Editing of FLNA on Protein-Protein Interactions.” Below are her comments about the Fellowship.

“I feel extremely honored by this fellowship and humbled by the award committee's vote of confidence. I know already that your phone call yesterday will have marked one of the most important days during my time as a graduate student. It is almost impossible to overestimate the significance this award will have on the quality of my research due to the financial aspect, and this significance is equalized by its impact on my professional and personal development. Just knowing that independent experts deemed my proposal fund-worthy, among so many other worthy applicants, really means a lot to me. Thank you so much, and please forward my deepest thanks to the reviewers and committee. Please know that the awarded amount is just what will fill the gap from a satisfactory to a fine conclusion of my thesis research.

I am also very excited to be a GWIS member and look forward to getting into contact with other women scientists in the region!”

As a new Fellowship winner, Christina will be given one-year membership in GWIS and will be part of the Kappa Chapter, where she will meet other women in science. She will receive the monthly GWIS News, our electronic newsletter, and The Bulletin, the quarterly newsletter. GWIS is a volunteer organization and if she chooses, Christina will have an opportunity to participate in one of our fourteen committees.

Congratulation, Christina, and to all of the other nine women who received fellowships. They will be featured on the Fellowship sidebar under “Awardees”. Donations to the Fellowships Funds can be made using the Donations Button.