The College of Arts and Sciences selected Anahid Ehtemami as a recipient of the Ermine M. Owenby, Jr. Travel Award. The award recognizes significant achievements of women graduate students and supports their participation in professional meetings. Ehtemami received $500 to attend the SPIE Medical Imaging conference in San Diego, where she presented her research entitled, “Functional Connectivity Analysis of Resting State fMRI Networks in Nicotine Dependent Patients.” In this research, Ehtemami studied the relationship between functionally connected brain regions that have a high level of activity during a resting state to identify nicotine dependence in patients.

SPIE, the Society for Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, is the international society for optics and photonics. The medical imaging conference focuses on cutting edge image processing, perception, informatics, segmentation, tomography and ultrasound.

Ermine Owenby is a three time Florida State alumna, having received a bachelors degree in Business, a masters in Education and a specialist in education. Her $50,000 contribution to the College of Arts and Sciences will provide $5,000 a year for ten years so that women graduate students can present research at professional conferences.