By Melisa Vernig, College of Engineering and Architecture intern
PULLMAN, Wash. – Svetlana Lockwood, a graduate student in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has received two significant graduate research awards from the National Science Foundation and from Google.
The prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of funding support as well as support for education and research, including access to the TeraGrid Supercomputer.
The 2011 Google Lime Scholar Award is co-sponsored by Lime Connect, a nonprofit that provides scholarships for people with disabilities. Lockwood was one of only nine people in the U.S. to receive the award, which includes an academic scholarship of $10,000 for the 2011-2012 school year. Recipients also are invited to the annual Google Scholars’ Retreat held at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., in late July.
Originally from Latvia, Lockwood, who has cerebral palsy, found few opportunities for education at home because of her disabilities. In 2002, she came to the U.S. to join her husband, who lives in Pullman. She became a Washington resident in 2005 and signed up for her first class that spring at WSU.
Since then, she has had an extraordinary academic career, receiving numerous awards for her work, including a prestigious Goldwater Award, given to only 300 students in the U.S. each year. In 2010, she graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics. She became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.
She is a graduate student in computer science, focusing on bioinformatics. She and her advisor, Professor Shira Broschat, are collaborating with microbiologists in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
“I’m delighted that Svetlana has received these much deserved awards and suspect they’re just among the many to which she looks forward,’’ said Broschat. “She’s an outstanding researcher and a very special person, and I really enjoy working with her.’’