Purdue News
Purdue News
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June 28, 2001 Purdue awards first George Washington Carver fellowshipWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Purdue University Graduate School has awarded the first George Washington Carver Fellowship to honor Carver's legacy and provide minority educators for future college students. The Carver fellowship, created by Purdue President Martin C. Jischke last fall, is awarded to first-year doctoral students studying science, engineering or mathematics. To be eligible, students must have attended an historically black institution, or Hispanic-serving or tribal college and want to pursue careers as professors. "It is difficult to imagine a person, other than Carver, whose life better illustrates the values we share at state universities and land-grant colleges," Jischke said. "Born a slave, Carver lived the values of access and opportunity, practical and liberal education, basic and applied research, and a commitment to service and engagement with the larger community. "Minority students in this country represent a tremendous potential for advanced education because they have been largely untapped. They are a human resource we need to develop, and this fellowship is one of Purdue's answers to that need." Javier Irizarry, from Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico, earned this year's fellowship and in August begins a doctoral program in civil engineering. "I hope to expand my research in the construction industry and develop innovative ways to continue construction activities under extreme environmental conditions," Irizarry said. Irizarry earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez and a master's in construction management from the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. As an undergraduate he worked on cross-campus research with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology related to the development of the San Juan Tren Urbano Transit System. While working on his master's degree, Irizarry worked as a construction schedule engineer for Puerto Rico's largest civil contractor. "We are thrilled that Javier is coming to work with Purdue's premier engineering faculty and researchers," said Dwight Lewis, director of the Graduate School's Minority Program Office. "I cannot think of a better tribute to the memory of George Washington Carver than helping minority students find their way to the front of university classrooms." In creating the Carver fellowship, Jischke challenged each of the other 211 members of the National Association for State Universities and Land Grant Colleges to endow similar fellowships. "One fellowship costs $15,000 per year and lasts approximately four years," Jischke said. "So we are talking about something that will eventually cost about $60,000 per year. That is a very small price to pay for something that is so badly needed by all of our institutions and so very important to a generation of young people. "If every NASULGC member would fund one fellowship each year, we could nearly double the number of doctorates earned in the areas of science, engineering or mathematics annually by persons of color, and thereby ensure that the contributions of the George Washington Carvers of the 21st century are not lost." Carver was born at the end of the Civil War and overcame poverty and racial discrimination to eventually become the director of agricultural teaching and research at Alabama’s Tuskegee University. He invented peanut butter along with more than 300 other uses for peanuts, and developed a crop-rotation method that revolutionized southern agriculture and boosted the country's economy. In addition, Carver worked at developing industrial applications for agricultural crops. During World War I, he found a way to replace textile dyes that had to be imported from Europe, producing 500 different shades of dye and inventing a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans. Sources: Martin C. Jischke, (765) 494-9780 Dwight Lewis, (765) 494-3232, delewis@purdue.edu Writer: Jenny Pratt, (765) 494-2079, jmpratt@purdue.edu Other source: Javier Irizarry, (787) 292-0117, redondo2@prtc.net Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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