Holly Gibbs, graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been named recipient of the 2014-2015 Outstanding Engineering Doctoral Graduate Student Award.
The award recognizes exceptional achievement and overall performance by a doctoral student. Awardees must be in good academic standing with a minimum cumulative and degree GPA of at least 3.75. As a recipient of the award, Gibbs will receive a commemorative memento and a one-time scholarship of $5,000. She is scheduled to be formally honored this November at the Dwight Look College of Engineering Student Awards Banquet.
Gibbs, who is advised by Associate Professor Alvin Yeh, has maintained a 4.0 GPA while working in Yeh’s Tissue Microscopy Lab on a collaborative project with Professor Arne Lekven of the Department of Biology. Her interdisciplinary research has focused on the application of ultrashort pulse laser technology to image embryonic brain development with the goal of understanding how genetic programs drive the morphological changes resulting in proper brain structure and function.
Gibbs has six refereed journal articles, with one under review, one under revision, and two more in preparation, as well as two proceedings. In addition, she was selected as a Teaching-as-Research Fellow by the Texas A&M Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning, applying for and gaining IRB approval to study the effects of learning styles and nonlinguistic learning exercises in an introductory biology course.
Gibbs also has served in leadership roles for several student organizations, including President of Alpha Eta Mu Beta, Design Chair for Engineering World Health, Outreach Coordinator for SPIE, and Travel Awards Chair for the Graduate Student Council, for which she has received the Anat Almadani Emerging Leader, Lawrence Guseman Service, and Buck Weirus Spirit awards.