PULLMAN, Wash. — Two Washington State University full-coverage graduate fellowships
from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science have been awarded to David
McKinnon of Richland and Christopher Wagner of Pullman.
One is the first such award ever offered in Computer Science.
The awards of approximately $15,000 for tuition for one academic year, health insurance and
a monthly stipend, were created earlier this year to attract more United States graduate students
into technical fields. The first two went to Brian Banister from Newcastle and John McNitt of
Albion. The school’s goal is to create at least 10 such awards.
McKinnon, who receives the first Carl M. Hansen Foundation award, earned a bachelor’s
degree in mathematics and a master’s in computer science from Brigham Young University. He
has worked for the last five years at Pacific Northwest Laboratory as a research engineer. His
work has been published in such journals as IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. His doctoral
research is on neural networks and machine learning.
The Carl M. Hansen Foundation created the award in 1990 with a $25,000 gift that later was
matched by the state and placed in an endowment in the College of Engineering and
Architecture. Accumulated interest from the account is providing award funds for the first two
years.
Wagner was recommended by the WSU faculty for his outstanding academic record as an
undergraduate and graduate student, and for his research in electromagnetics under the direction
of John Schneider. His fellowship will be funded from a combination of private donations from
corporate and alumni sources.
Both students will begin their fellowships next fall in Pullman.
For more graduate fellowship details, contact EECS Graduate Student Services, 509/335-6636.
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