The foundation is a non-profit organization established by the Federal Republic of Germany for the promotion of international research cooperation. It enables highly qualified scholars not living in Germany to spend extended periods for research in Germany and promotes the ensuing academic contacts.

The fellowship will support a year of research. Muth will work with his German sponsor, Paul Enck, director of research of the Department of Internal Medicine, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospitals Tubingen.

Muth and Enck will research eating disorders.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to build international collaborations and get reacquainted to a research area that I have been away from for some time," Muth said.

As a graduate student, Muth worked in the area of gastrointestinal psychophysiology and completed a dissertation examining factors that influence functional dyspepsia, a disorder of the upper gastrointestinal tract associated with symptoms such as nausea and bloating with no apparent physiological cause. However, following graduate school, he spent three years in the US Navy as an aerospace experimental psychologist working on applied human factors problems.

"Much of the research I have completed here at Clemson has been a continuation of that applied human factors work," he said. "Recently, Dr. Adam Hoover, my collaborator here at Clemson, and I have become interested in developing biofeedback devices to help individuals become more aware of their physiological need to eat. My fellowship and collaboration with Dr. Enck will form the basic science foundation for the applied work we are doing here at Clemson."

Muth will examine the utility of a "water load test" to differentiate between genders, eating patterns and healthy subjects versus patients with eating disorders and obesity. The long-term goal of this work, according to Muth, is to determine if the maladaptive component of an eating disorder or obese patient's eating pattern is perceptual, physiological or both. This would potentially allow for treatment to be focused on correcting the perceptual, physiological or mixed problem. For example, individuals with maladaptive eating patterns could be given biofeedback from their stomach's electrical rhythms and trained to pay more attention to their physiological state, allowing them to adopt a better eating pattern.

Clemson Vice President for Research and Economic Development Chris Przirembel said the Humboldt Research Fellowship is highly competitive and awarded only to researchers who are recognized internationally for their academic qualifications.

"It is an honor for Clemson University to have one of our faculty members receive this internationally prestigious fellowship," he said. "We look forward to seeing the results of professor Muth's work and the long-term impact of the associated collaborative research programs."

The Humboldt Foundation promotes an active worldwide network of scholars. Individual sponsorship during periods spent in Germany and longstanding follow-up contacts have been hallmarks of the foundation's work since 1953. For more information go to http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/index.htm.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in psychology, please visit: www.clemson.edu/psych/graduate/index.htm.

Caron St. John, associate dean of the College of Business and Behavioral Science at Clemson University, has received the Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award for outstanding leadership, innovation and technological excellence in the Upstate community.

St. John is the founder and director of the Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Clemson and director of the MBA program.

The Dr. Charles Townes Individual Achievement Award honors an individual who exhibits a commitment to the advancement of technology and the Upstate community through technology-oriented contributions. Such contributions may be business, civic and/or educational in nature and must benefit the Upstate.

InnoVision is the premier awards program focused exclusively on celebrating achievements in innovation and technological excellence in the South Carolina Upstate region. The following 10 counties are in the South Carolina Upstate region: Abbeville, Anderson, Cherokee, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg and Union.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in the College of Business and Behavioral Science, visit http://business.clemson.edu/.

Kristin Moore (human factors psychology) was awarded the Department of Defense (DoD) Science, Mathematics, And Research for Transformation (SMART) Defense Scholarship administered by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). SMART scholarships are awarded to students who have demonstrated ability and special aptitude for training and education in science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM). The scholarship includes a yearly stipend of $38,000, full tuition and related education fees, health insurance, a book allowance of $1,000, paid summer internships and career opportunities after graduation.

Jenna Scisco (human factors psychology) is the recipient of the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense. Scisco's application was selected by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research from more than 3,400 applications that were received. The NDSEG Fellowship covers tuition and required fees for three years and provides a yearly stipend of approximately $31,000.

Laurie Wasko (industrial-organziational psychology) was awrded the first Joyce and Thayer Fellowship in I-O psychology. The Joyce and Thayer Fellowship is designed to provide financial support to a single outstanding doctoral student in I-O psychology who is specializing in training and development and/or selection and placement. The fellowship provides an annual award of $10,000 (from start of academic year through the following summer). In addition, Laurie's selection was recognized during the plenary session at the SIOP annual conference in New York City.

Walker believes that "if we can discover the aspects of these environments that cause people to become motion sick, then perhaps we can correct them and increase simulator effectiveness."

He is specifically interested in working as an aerospace experimental psychologist for the US Navy-a place where his research can truly make a difference.

After completing both his bachelor's and master's in psychology programs at Clemson, he chose to continue his studies here because of the opportunity to remain working with his advisor, Dr. Eric Muth, and the rest of the department's outstanding faculty. "Few universities that I visited seemed to have faculty that worked so well with each other and with the graduate students."

Walker was awarded a prestigious 2006 scholarship from the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference-an event promoting cooperation among the armed services, industry, academia and various government agencies in pursuit of improved training and education programs-to help fund his research.

Jason is an individual whom his advisor, Dr. Eric Muth, considers "the pioneering graduate student of the [human factors psychology] program." Jason is the first human factors PhD student to win a national award from the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, and his master's thesis directly led to research funding in one of the human factors psychology laboratories on campus.

He has given three conference presentations and is the co-author of two publications. His doctoral research focuses on why helmet-mounted displays make people sick.

"I was honored when I received word that I won the fellowship. It will greatly enhance my remaining experience in my doctoral research involving simulator sickness, or in other words, motion sickness that occurs in virtual environments, by allowing me to solely focus on this area of research. I am very proud to be representing the human factors psychology graduate program and Dr. Eric Muth's Human Stress and Motion Science Laboratory," Jason noted in response to his award.

"Without question, Jason has been an important factor in the success of getting our HF PhD program off the ground. There is no doubt that when Jason graduates in 2008, he will continue to forge ground as a positive ambassador of Clemson in whatever career path he chooses," stated Dr. Eric Muth.

For more information about fellowships offered by the University, contact Valorie Troesch at vtroesc@clemson.edu.