6/19/2012 By Chad Garland 4 min read
Written by By Chad Garland
In the long term, Harishankar Manikantan, MechSE graduate student studying Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, plans to go into academia and teach. However, in the short term, namely the 2012-2013 school year, it will be all about the research when he receives a $12,000 FMC Technologies Inc. Fellowship. The fellowship also includes tuition and fees waivers.
“I like teaching—I intend to take up a career teaching—but I needed some block time where I had time for research, and in that way this fellowship is very helpful,” Manikantan said.
Manikantan, who has had both a part-time teaching assistantship and a part-time research assistantship, said he will spend the one-year appointment furthering his research in fluid mechanics. He said when he learned that he received the fellowship he was “elated” and called home to India, then told his research advisor, Assistant Professor David Saintillan.
“The most important thing is I get to spend a lot more time on my research,” Manikantan said. “It’s good for me and good for him to get a lot of work done this year.”
The FMC Fellowships, Inc. are awarded annually to outstanding graduate students in business, engineering, or related fields. Two other master’s students and four doctoral students will receive the fellowship for 2012-13, but Manikantan is the only master’s student from the Urbana campus and the only MechSE student to receive the fellowship this year.
Manikantan came to Illinois from his native Mangalore, India in 2010, after graduating from the National Institute of Technology in Karnataka. Knowing he wanted to work in fluid mechanics, Illinois’s reputation in that area influenced his decision, he said, but the flexibility of the TAM program and the graduate student funding opportunities were other factors he considered.
He said he learned about the fellowship about a year and a half ago, but felt more confident in his application this year because of the work he has done within the department.
“The three faculty I received letters (of recommendation) from, one of them was my advisor and the two others taught classes I had performed pretty well in,” Manikantan said. “I was confident that I had made a strong application, so I was hoping to get it.”
In addition to letters of recommendation from Saintillan, Professor Jon Freund, and Assistant Professor Carlos Pantano-Rubino, he received a departmental nomination for the fellowship.
The FMC Educational Fund Fellowship was established in 1963 by a donation of 15,000 shares of stock in the Link-Belt Company (later acquired by the FMC Corporation, now FMC Technologies, Inc.) to the University of Illinois Foundation by Bert A. Gayman, an alumnus of the University of Illinois.
Intending to provide education and research opportunities, the fund now provides more than $360,000 annually for undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships at the University of Illinois.
The spirit of the FMC Fellowship is to support the education of University of Illinois students who would be viable candidates for employment at FMC Technologies, Inc. For more information about FMC Technologies, go to http://www.fmctechnologies.com/.
After two years at Illinois, Manikantan said the university has exceeded his expectations, both in course exposure and research opportunities.
“I’m sure I made the right decision,” he said.