Graduate Student in Chemistry Wins Scholarship for Protein Structural Research
 |
Scholarship recipient Meng Yang, center, with her advisor Professor Nicole Sampson, Chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Professor Peter W. Stephens, Associate Dean for Curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences. |
STONY BROOK, N.Y., October 6, 2014 – Meng Yang, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry at Stony Brook University, has won the tenth annual Mow Shiah Lin Scholarship. The Asian Pacific American Association at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory sponsors the scholarship, which consists of $1,000 and a plaque, to honor the distinguished late Brookhaven Lab scientist for whom it was named.
Yang’s research focuses on structural biochemistry and protein science applied to the identification of new protein structural motifs that are important for cholesterol metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She has pursued this research under the guidance of her advisor, Professor Nicole Sampson, Chair of the Department of Chemistry.
“Although chemical biology can offer a variety of choices to researchers, I aim to gain a better understanding of drug reactions and disease processes at the molecular level,” said Yang. “I am grateful to be named this year’s recipient of the Mow Shiah Lin scholarship, which will help me to pursue my PhD at Stony Brook University and make contributions in the field of drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals that may lead to solutions and treatment of diseases.”
About the Scholarship
Mow Shiah Lin began his career at Brookhaven Lab in 1975 and co-lead a research team working with an environmental remediation company to use selected bacteria to convert toxic oil wastes, such as used motor oils, into useful products. In 2001, Lin shared an R&D 100 Award, given by R&D Magazine for the top 100 technological achievements of the year, for developing a technology to recover silica from geothermal brine. Lin died suddenly due to a brain aneurysm in 2003, and his coworkers, friends and family contributed funds to establish the scholarship. It is granted annually to a student of Asian heritage with a U.S. student visa who is matriculated at an accredited institution of higher education on Long Island working toward a graduate degree in environmental & energy technology, biology, or chemistry.
