Two BME Alumni were named National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows for 2009. Christopher Carruthers '07 (B.S., Biomedical Engineering) of University of Pittsburgh and Scott White '07/T5 (B.S., Biomedical Engineering) currently working in Central America teaching farmers improved technology.

Christoper Carruthers is nearing the end of his second year of his PhD program at Pittsburgh. His abstract has been accepted for the Society of Heart Valve Disease in Berlin for presentation this summer, and he is engaged in the artificial heart program at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center training, moving from a technician to an engineer with competency in the operation of over 10 ventricular assist devices by this summer.

After graduating in May 2007, Scott White taught science to middle school students at the Wildwood School in Los Angeles. Since then, he has been working in Central America with two NGOs. He helped farmers with technology education and translating in an NGO in Guatemala called CCDA (Comite Campesino Del Altiplano), and is currently in Nicaragua with an NGO called blueEnergy with renewable energy installations in isolated communities and developing curriculum in their local schools. In 2010, he'll be attending Stanford's Atmosphere/Energy masters program in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department.