WMU Home > About WMU > WMU News

WMU News

Three students win major graduate scholarships

July 2, 2007

KALAMAZOO--Three exceptional students have been awarded fellowships valued at more than $60,000 to pursue doctoral degrees at Western Michigan University during the upcoming academic year.

Shannon Anderson of Athens, Georgia; Zella Jackson Hannum of Okemos, Mich.; and Gregory A. Love of Muskegon, Mich., are the WMU-AGEP Fellowship recipients for 2007-08.

WMU's Graduate College offers the WMU-AGEP Fellowship in partnership with the Michigan Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. Fellows receive an annual stipend of more than $19,000, plus up to 24 credit hours of tuition per year.

Shannon Anderson will be entering WMU's physics doctoral program this fall and will specialize in the field of experimental nuclear physics.

Articles written by Anderson have been published in the Georgia State University TRIO program's McNair Scholars Research Journal and the American Physical Society publication Physical Review A, which is primarily a resource for worldwide developments in the rapidly evolving area of atomic, molecular and optical physics.

In addition, Anderson has received the Georgia Southern University Leadership and Community Service Award and University of Georgia Laser Safety Certification as well as a UG TRIO Upward Bound Certificate of Appreciation.

He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from GSU and a master's degree in physics from UG.

Zella Jackson Hannum will be entering WMU's doctoral degree program in industrial engineering this fall. She served as co-chairperson of Washington, D.C.'s, Economic Business Advisory Council in 2002 and is an expert in the areas of market research, new product design, advertising and promotion, entrepreneurism and innovation, marketing and sales management.

A sought-after keynote speaker at conferences, Hannum has taught at such institutions as Hawaii Pacific and Michigan State universities and California State University, Fresno. She has written more than 100 articles and five educational books, including "The Art of Being an Entrepreneurial Woman." That work won her the History Bronze Award from the Writer's International Network.

Hannum also has received the Outstanding Engineering Student Award from the Michigan Inter-Association of Black Business and Engineering Students and a Career Woman of the Year Award from the National Association of Business and Professional Women, among many other honors. She earned three degrees from Michigan State University--bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree in production control.

Gregory A. Love, a current WMU student, will enter the doctoral program in industrial engineering in spring 2008. He is in the process of completing the University's master's degree in engineering management, which has been cited as the best graduate-level engineering management program in the nation.

An accomplished engineer, Love has spent more than 18 years working in the commercial nuclear industry in areas including safety and licensing, environmental and regulatory compliance and verification, emergency preparedness, database design, and program and project development. He has worked in a variety of posts for such organizations as the Nebraska Public Power District, Mississippi Power & Light, Illinois Power Station, and the Westinghouse Electric Corp.

Love also was president and owner of Independent Nuclear Consultants for more than a decade, and has been a guest teacher at Muskegon-area middle schools and high schools as well as for the Richmond County Board of Education in Augusta, Ga. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from MSU and spent a summer as a doctoral graduate research assistant in physical chemistry at the University of South Carolina.

For more information on the fellowships, contact Linda Comrie in the Graduate College at linda.comrie@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8237.

Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu

WMU News
Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
(269) 387-8400
www.wmich.edu/wmu/news