Graduate Student Travel Fund Allows for Opportunities To Share Research

Attending and presenting research at conferences can be a lifechanging opportunity for students, but funds are often needed to support students in travel. Former NC State Graduate School Robert Sowell and his wife created a travel fund to make sure students would get these opportunities. Robert Sowell, former faculty in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, and his wife Suester established the Robert and Suester Sowell Graduate Student Travel Fund, an endowment that helps graduate students pay for travel to present papers at professional meetings and conferences.

Graduate student Hossam Moursi was recently the recipient of this award and hopes to use the funds to attend the 2020 ASABE Annual International Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska in July.

“I feel very proud and grateful to get this award so that I can share some of my research results with others that work in relevant research areas,” he notes. “I plan to give an oral presentation on the water quality benefits of using on-farm irrigation ponds in North Carolina.”

He notes this would be a great opportunity to get feedback on the results of his field experiment and a valuable asset as he prepares his work for publication.

“I hope the current circumstances due to COVID-19 will improve and the meeting will be held as planned,” he adds.