SC Ph.D. student Jhamieka Greenwood has been awarded The McKnight Doctoral Fellowship which provides up to five years of funding support for newly enrolled African American and Hispanic graduate students who intend to seek a Ph.D. degree. The McKnight Doctoral Program is a state-wide program administered through the Florida Education Fund (FEF). The program is designed to address the under-representation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the state of Florida by increasing the pool of citizens qualified doctoral graduates to teach at the college and university level. As a by-product, it is expected that employment opportunities in industry will also be expanded.
Jhamieka Greenwood
College: Arts and Sciences
Degree Program: Computational Science
Degree: Doctoral
Award: McKnight Doctoral Fellowship (2022)
Why FSU?
When contemplating my school choices for a graduate degree, I researched the Department of Scientific Computing at FSU and the Department of Computational Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech. I was intrigued by the interdisciplinary research topics at FSU. I knew it was a good choice for my growing interest in graphics programming and my curiosity to use it as a scientific tool.
Motivation to pursue a graduate degree
I love learning, and I am passionate about creating something that will help many people. After completing my bachelor's degree, I knew I needed more academic training to do that in my field. Also, after seeing the record low numbers of African American women in my field, I am now even more motivated to pursue my PhD.
Importance of research and work
I develop physics-based fluid models to study wildfire spread visualized in an augmented reality environment. I specifically look at the atmospheric flow around a fire, which can help us understand the plume dynamics and what variables influence fire-induced flows. Using augmented reality can extend my research into labs and classrooms, providing a safe way to study a dangerous and unpredictable phenomenon.
Accomplishments during graduate school
I attended my first international scientific conference, the American Geophysical Union 2021 Fall Meeting. Also, I received the American Geophysical Union Student Travel Grant and the Fellows Society Most Innovative Communication in STEM.
Advice for prospective graduate students
It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. I have learned so much in my first two years and gained confidence as a researcher. I used to dread talking about my research or networking, but now I look forward to the opportunity to meet new people in my field and spread my work.
Career Aspirations
I want to work in private industry. I hope to be a part of big projects developing software or tools for extended reality media (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality).
A link to an interview with Greenwood can be found here.
This article is a partial reprint of a comprehensive catalogue of 2022-2023 FSU McKnight Doctoral Fellows located here.