Hope College senior Jill S. Pinter of Belleville has received a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
She received one of only 54 fellowships in chemistry nationwide, out of a total of 1,020 fellowships awarded to students pursuing doctorates in a variety of disciplines in the sciences.
Fields of study supported by the fellowships include chemistry, computer science, engineering, the geosciences, the life sciences, the mathematical sciences, physics and astronomy, psychology and the social sciences. The fellowships are for up to three years, and pay $40,500 annually, including a $30,000 stipend and $10,500 cost of education award.
Pinter is a chemistry and physics major who has conducted research with both Dr. Kenneth Brown, assistant professor of chemistry, and Dr. Graham Peaslee, associate professor of chemistry and geology/environmental science. She plans to pursue a doctorate in chemical physics, conducting research in nuclear chemistry, at Michigan State University. After graduate school, she plans to conduct research at a national laboratory in order to develop alternate forms of energy. Ultimately, she hopes to find herself back at a liberal arts school, as an instructor.
Pinter was recently named to the college's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and to the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society. Through the years she has received a variety of other honors at the college, including receiving a Beckman Scholarship to conduct collaborative student-faculty research, the Cancer Federation Award, the Junior Award in Physical Chemistry and the Organic Chemistry Book Award to the Outstanding Student in Organic Chemistry. She received the Outstanding Student Award at the ACS/DOE-sponsored Summer School in Nuclear Chemistry at Brookhaven National Lab in the summer of 2004. She was named to the college's chapter of Mortar Board in the spring of 2004, and has consistently been named to the dean's list.
She has presented her research at both the regional and national level, including meetings in Anaheim, Calif.; San Diego, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; and Chicago, Ill.
Pinter is a member of the Pi Mu Epsilon mathematics and Sigma Pi Sigma physics honorary societies, president of the chemistry club and secretary of the society of physics students. Her activities at Hope have also included a senior piano recital in February of this year, varsity golf, the Hope Democrats and the Women's Issues Organization.
She is the daughter of Robert and Susan Pinter of Belleville, and is a 2001 graduate of Lincoln Consolidated High School in Ypsilanti.