International enrollment in science and engineering graduate programs in the United States saw a 6 percent decrease from fall 2016 to fall 2017, said Diane Souvaine, National Science Board vice chair and professor of computer science at Tufts University. However, the University saw nearly a 10 percent increase in enrollment of international graduate students in science and engineering programs, said Ethan Bernstein, director of admissions and operations. International graduate applications for all fields also saw a national decline, with 3 percent fewer applications submitted between fall 2016 and fall 2017, according to a Council of Graduate Schools report.

Two major news organizations are reporting that the Trump administration is considering restrictions on visas for Chinese citizens, including students, as part of a forthcoming package of tariffs and investment restrictions against China.

Lok Raj Joshi and Maureen Fernandes are both studying swine viruses while pursuing their doctorates in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at South Dakota State University. Specializing in veterinary microbiology, Joshi and Fernandes are researching two different viruses that affect pigs. As the world’s third-largest producer and the largest exporter of pork products, these swine viruses threaten the U.S. pork industry and the economy more broadly.

Joshi’s research focuses on Senecavirus A (SVA), which causes lesions on a pig’s snout and feet and can lead to lameness. The recent increase in reported cases of SVA has raised its profile and interest in additional research to better understand the virus. Joshi studies the causes of SVA and aims to better identify its characteristics. Fernandes researches a virus that affects a pig’s reproductive and respiratory systems (porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus), “a common swine virus that causes millions of dollars in losses every year to the swine industry.” Fernandes is working to identify potential immunizations that will protect the pigs from the virus.

Mr. Joshi and Ms. Fernandes were honored for their work at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Disease last year in Chicago. To learn more about Lok and Maureen’s work visit the South Dakota State University website.

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Photo Credit: SD State News Center

As a recent doctoral recipient in geological sciences from the University of Missouri, Arianna Soldati has a passion for science, volcanology to be specific. She says, “My fascination with volcanoes dates back to early childhood…and I have been pursuing my passion across four continents.” As one of roughly 1,500 volcanologists in the world, she gets a lot of questions about her work when meeting new people. Soldati realized that learning how to talk about it with a wide audience was really important, which fueled her interest in science communication and outreach.

During the Fall of 2017, Soldati founded the program Science on Wheels (SoW), a graduate student-run science outreach program targeting adults in Missouri’s rural communities. Their mission is, “to provide people living in rural areas with the opportunity to interact with scientists right in their towns, promoting a positive perception of science.” SoW focuses on adults, because once out of school, many never engage with science again. Soldati hopes that the more people understand science and scientists, the more they will trust them. “Science isn’t just something that happens in labs,” Soldati said. “It’s something that’s used in everyday life.”

Dr. Soldati graduated this Spring semester and is looking forward to beginning a postdoc in Germany at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She will be researching the effects of phenocrysts (a specific kind of crystal) on lava flow with funding from the Humboldt Foundation. To learn more about Arianna’s work visit the University of Missouri website, or her blog, Volcanic Arianna.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

As a first-generation student from Chennai, India, Zubaida Bai was determined to make a difference. After earning her bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Dalarna University in Sweden, Bai spent four years working back home in India to provide communities with the necessary resources. Bai was specifically interested in finding ways to help the women in her community. She entered the Global Social & Sustainable Enterprise MBA program at Colorado State University in search of innovative ways to empower women through business.

One issue in particular struck a chord with Bai: the number of women who die in childbirth. Having had her own complications with infection after delivering a baby, Bai understood the urgency of the problem. One of the main causes of complications is “a lack of access to basic clean tools at the time of childbirth,” said Bai. She and her husband founded the company ayzh (pronounced eyes) to create innovative products, including a birth kit (called JANMA) to provide the necessary tools for clean, safe childbirth in the poorest communities.

Since creating JANMA, Ms. Bai has developed additional resources to assist women: a neonatal kit, a postpartum kit, and a program to provide women with the menstrual supplies they need.  Bai has received global recognition for her work. In 2009, she was named a TED Fellow and delivered a TED talk in December 2016 that has been viewed nearly 900,000 times. In 2016, Bai was named an SDG Pioneer during the United Nation’s Global Compact Summit. To learn more about Zubaida’s work visit the Colorado State University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Ryan Lash/TED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg  (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC —Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced that Lauren Inouye has been named the Council’s vice president for public policy and government affairs. Her tenure at CGS begins May 1, 2018. She succeeds Beth Buehlmann, who had served in the role since 2013.

Inouye comes to CGS from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), where she was the director of government affairs. In her prior role, Inouye served as AACN’s primary liaison to Congress on workforce, research, higher education, and practice issues. She also led their University Government Relations Collaborative, working to bolster unified advocacy on issues impacting nursing schools, and developed their Principles for Higher Education Act reauthorization.

CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega commented, “Lauren Inouye has a deep understanding of the contributions of graduate institutions to our country and workforce and is equally attune to the challenges faced by institutions of higher education. CGS members will benefit from her experience and knowledge as the organization continues to advance the graduate education agenda in Washington.”

In accepting the appointment, Inouye emphasized the role of elevating CGS’s voice in the federal sphere. “I look forward to helping CGS members speak with a powerful and unified voice for graduate education,” Inouye said. “I value the opportunity to use my skills as a leader, collaborator, and coalition builder while developing a policy agenda that moves our country forward.”

Inouye holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Michigan. Prior to her public policy work, Inouye served as a registered nurse in the medical intensive care unit at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.

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After spending five years in the Marine Corps, including two deployments in Iraq and working as a mechanic on AV8B II jets, Jessica Phillips was eligible for the G.I. Bill to pay for higher education. She was working as a ranger at Kerr Lake State Recreation Area in North Carolina and at least an hour drive from a major university. Phillips discovered an online program at North Carolina State University and went on to earn her Professional Master’s Degree in parks, recreation, tourism, and sports management.

Phillips’s love of the outdoors started during childhood. After leaving the Marines, she knew she needed to find a job that would provide variety and wouldn’t require sitting at a desk all day. “In the Marine Corps, I was out on a flight deck and an open squadron, and I learned that I was somebody who didn’t want to work in an office,” she said. “I would have slowly died.” Phillips believed her skill sets would be a good match for a park ranger, and she has taken her work as a ranger to the next level. While at Kerr Lake she developed a regular “Ask a Ranger” column for the local newspaper and programming for the local radio station.

In 2014, Phillips moved to Umstead State Park, where she has developed an “Ask a Ranger” blog on the website, started podcasts by recording interviews with her colleagues, and created photo exhibits to celebrate the state parks’ centennial. Ultimately, Phillips wants everyone to appreciate all the parks have to offer. “I thought that by bringing the parks to (the people), we might then bring them to the parks.” To learn more about Jessica’s work visit the North Carolina State University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Becky Kirkland, NC State University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS: (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that JoAnn Canales, founding dean of the College of Graduate Studies and professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, has been named the CGS Dean-in-Residence for the 2018-19 academic year. Dr. Canales brings to the post significant experience leading graduate education, including launching a professional development program specifically for graduate students. Canales will join CGS on August 1.

The CGS Dean-in-Residence program was created to infuse a campus-based perspective and vision across a variety of the Council’s programs and initiatives. The Dean-in-Residence works on multiple projects aligned with his or her interests and the Council’s needs.

“Dr. Canales has spent her academic career ensuring a diverse community of scholars has access to quality graduate education,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Her expertise in assessment and facilitating the development of assessment skills will also greatly benefit CGS and its members.”

In accepting the appointment, Canales remarked, “I am honored to have been afforded the privilege of working with the graduate education enterprise at the national level.  I look forward to working with the very talented and dedicated team at the Council of Graduate Schools and its partners to enhance the initiatives of our colleagues.”

Dr. Canales holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Bilingual Education from The University of Texas at Austin. She began her academic career as an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of North Texas. In 2002-2003 she was recognized as a fellow in the American Council on Education Leadership Training Program. As founding Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Canales established the AC & Ende Canales Si Se Puede Scholarship.

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Juan Velasquez, a recent doctoral recipient in neuroscience at the University of Southern California, was awarded a prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship to study how antidepressants affect fetal development during pregnancy. Somewhere between 12-18% of women experience depression at some point during the course of their pregnancy. Scientists, including Dr. Velasquez, are researching selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants increasingly prescribed to treat depression in pregnant women, and their effects during fetal development.

Understand the importance of Dr. Velasquez’s work requires a basic understanding of how SSRIs work. Depression is linked to the way chemicals, specifically serotonin, in your brain operate. Researchers believe that an imbalance of serotonin contributes to things like depression, anxiety, and stress. By taking SSRIs, patients alter their brain chemistry to balance levels of serotonin. One of the questions Dr. Velasquez wants to answer is whether changes in a pregnant woman’s brain chemistry can affect the fetus. How would it affect a fetus? The same way a fetus gets its nourishment among other things: through the placenta.

Early results from Dr. Velasquez’s research indicate that SSRIs do cross the placenta and affect the fetal brain, and other studies have shown that taking antidepressants during pregnancy can increase the risk of things like autism and ADHD. However, not treating depression during pregnancy is not an answer Dr. Velasquez will accept. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and continues to study this process to ensure the health of both the fetus and the mother. To learn more about Juan’s work visit the USC Graduate School YouTube Channel.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Hironao Okahana, Associate Vice President, Research & Policy Analysis

A number of recent studies have drawn attention to the mental health challenges experienced by graduate students.[1] Studies note that the prevalence of mental health challenges among PhD students is higher than that of the highly-educated general population, and much higher than in the general population.[2] The most recent study published in Nature Biotechnology reported that 39% of their participants, mostly doctoral candidates, fell into the moderate-to-severe depression range,[3] while other studies reported that one in two PhD students has experienced psychological distress, and one in three is at risk of a common psychiatric disorder.[4]  Some factors known to adversely affect the mental wellness of graduate students have also been noted in CGS’s recently concluded “Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion (National Science Foundation grant number 1138814)” project. In that study, we found that underrepresented minority doctoral candidates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields were more likely to feel isolated from other students and worried about their mental or physical health than their peers[5].

The challenges surrounding mental wellness of master’s and doctoral students are at the forefront of the minds of many graduate deans in the CGS community. In the 2018 CGS Pressing Issues Survey[6], 63% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that current graduate students struggle to maintain mental wellness more than students five years ago. Only 10% of respondents disagreed with the statement and none strongly disagreed. However, even with this heightened awareness about mental health challenges among graduate students, graduate deans also seem concerned that campus stakeholders may not currently be equipped to address these challenges.

Identifying Mental Health Challenges

When asked how well their institutions inform and train various campus stakeholders to recognize symptoms of mental health challenges in graduate students and in turn refer those students to appropriate support services, many graduate deans who responded expressed concern that their institutions weren’t doing enough. Notably, the results suggest that more than four out of ten graduate deans think that more can be done to inform and train graduate faculty members, faculty advisers, PIs, and dissertation/thesis chairs, as well as graduate program directors/department chairs and graduate students themselves. Only 21% of deans reported that their institutions do an excellent or good job of informing and training graduate faculty members.  About one out of ten respondents (11%) reported that they do not know if graduate students are informed or trained about symptoms of mental health issues.

However, we also learned that support services for mental health are available at institutions. In the 2017 CGS Pressing Issues Survey[7], 96% of CGS member graduate deans who responded indicated that mental health support and crisis counseling are provided either by their graduate schools and/or by other units at their institutions. Yet, the results from the 2018 survey suggest that institutions are not doing as well at informing and training graduate school stakeholders to recognize and refer students with mental health challenges to the appropriate and available resources at their campuses. This is problematic, particularly given that 70% of graduate deans in the 2018 survey felt that when provided with adequate information and training, graduate faculty members—including faculty advisers, PIs, and dissertation/thesis chairs—should be best positioned to recognize the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges and ensure that graduate students are referred to appropriate support services. Graduate schools may have a role here in better connecting graduate students with available resources through their graduate faculty members.