Nicholas Bentley '21, Sara Maynard '17 and Tiffany Sill '22, doctoral students in the College of Arts and Sciences at Texas A&M University, have been selected as 2024 Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship Award recipients, announced last month through the Texas A&M Graduate and Professional School.
Bentley, Maynard and Sill are among the six Texas A&M doctoral students honored this year with the prestigious award, established in 2006 with the support of Phil Gramm, the former United States Senator from Texas who served as a professor of economics at Texas A&M for 12 years before being elected to Congress. The Gramm Fellowship Program seeks to promote, encourage and reward outstanding teaching and research by doctoral students whose command of their respective disciplines exemplifies the meaning of scholarship and mentorship in the highest sense.
The Texas A&M Arts and Sciences trio will be celebrated along with their fellow 2024 recipients in a Friday, Nov. 8, by-invitation-only ceremony during which each will be presented with a personalized award certificate and a fellowship in the amount of $5,000. In addition, all six students henceforth will be recognized as Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellows for general scholarship excellence and contributions to their disciplines.
Nicholas Bentley '21
Bentley, a native of Eustis, Florida, is doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology studying under Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor of Anthropology Dr. Michael Waters. He earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology with a minor in geography from Florida State University. Bentley first developed an interest in archaeology during an introductory archaeology course taught by Dr. Jessi Halligan. His passion for the field of archaeology deepened during a hands-on experience at a field site in eastern Oregon, where he participated in excavating a dry cave. For his dissertation, Bentley is investigating the geoarchaeology of the Aucilla River Basin in northwest Florida, renowned for its rich deposits of Paleoindian artifacts. Through his initial geoarchaeological survey of the Aucilla River, he realized the potential of the site to inform researchers of archaeological preservation potential and human-environment interrelations during a time of rapidly changing climate and environmental upheaval. Bentley has recently completed his second and final field season of field research at the site and is now analyzing the collected archaeological and paleontological materials.
Sara Maynard '17
Maynard is a Ph.D. candidate in the interdisciplinary Molecular Environmental and Plant Science (MEPS) program and works in Dr. Larry Griffing’s lab in the Department of Biology. She completed her bachelor’s in molecular and cell biology with a minor in Spanish at Texas A&M, joining the Griffing Lab as a senior. Maynard’s dissertation focuses on how light-induced stress affects the cells and structures of plants. In her research, she uses high-resolution light microscopes to visualize these stress responses in real-time. Maynard has attended many national and international research conferences where she has presented her research in both oral and poster sessions. In addition to working on her research project, she has been a teaching assistant for Texas A&M Biology for more than 15 semesters, having taught in excess of 500 undergraduate students. She regularly mentors undergraduate researchers in the Griffing Lab, helping coordinate the Department of Biology’s first research experience for undergraduates (REU) program. Maynard has also worked to promote the success of her fellow graduate students, serving on the Student Research Week planning committee and on the Biology Graduate Students’ Association for four years, two of those as president. She says she looks forward to a future career in academia where she can continue teaching and working on her research.
Tiffany Sill '22
Sill is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry under the advisement of Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee. Sill earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from California State University, San Bernardino. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Texas A&M University Avilés-Johnson Graduate Fellow and the recipient of The Franc Roads Elliott Sesquicentennial Endowed International Scholar Award. She is also the recipient of numerous awards including the American Chemical Society Excellence in Leadership and Mentoring Award; the Ellen and Dr. Jan M. Troup ’74 Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Research, Teaching and Service in Chemistry; and the Gerry Meisner ’78 and Robbie Peascoe ’90 Endowed Graduate Travel Scholarship. She served as the American Chemical Society (ACS) student delegate to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland (2021) and as the ACS delegation mentor for COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt (2022). Sill has also authored multiple articles published in journals such as npj Materials Degradation. Her dissertation focuses on investigating corrosion inhibition mechanisms critical to the protection of strategic infrastructure components and the development of lightweight alloys in automotive applications. Sill’s research answers fundamental questions related to the influence of polymer molecular weight on corrosion inhibition. In collaboration with a major manufacturer of coatings, she is developing composite materials for commercial adoption.
Gramm, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, spent two decades serving in the U.S. Congress and Senate, where he used his economic and financial expertise to create important laws and policies as well as provide advice to fellow legislators and the White House. He authored numerous articles and books while at Texas A&M, ranging from monetary theory to mineral extraction economics. Currently, Gramm is the senior partner of Gramm Partners, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C., as well as the senior advisor at U.S. Policy Metrics.
To learn more about the Gramm Fellowship Program and other opportunities for graduate and professional students at Texas A&M, visit https://grad.tamu.edu/.
This story was originally published by Texas A&M Today.