Graduate Student at Stony Brook University Wins Chasman Scholarship

December 7, 2006

UPTON, NY - Noelle Cutter, a graduate student at Stony Brook University, has won the 2006 Renate W. Chasman Scholarship for Women.  Brookhaven Women in Science, a not-for-profit organization at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, offers the scholarship to qualified candidates annually to encourage women to pursue careers in science, engineering or mathematics.

Photo of Noelle Cutter Winning Chasman Scholarship enlarge

With the 2006 Renate W. Chasman Scholarship winner Noelle Cutter (center) are Brookhaven Women in Science members on the scholarship committee (from left): Kathleen Barkigia, Vinita Ghosh, Aimee Sumereau, and Loralie Smart.
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Named after the late Renate Chasman, a renowned physicist who worked at Brookhaven, the $2,000 scholarship is awarded each year to a re-entry woman - one whose college education was interrupted, but who has returned to pursue a degree on a half time or greater basis.

Noelle Cutter earned a B.S. in biology from Molloy College in Rockville Center in 2003, then went on to work as a biology associate at Brookhaven Lab, from 2004 to 2006, before being accepted at Stony Brook's graduate program in genetics this past September.

"As an undergraduate, I was a pre-med major at first, but then I became interested in research, so I decided to work in that area to see if it suited me," Cutter said. "That's when I was fortunate enough to get the position at Brookhaven, which helped me tremendously in focusing on a new direction."

At Brookhaven, Cutter worked at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, a facility that simulates the harsh cosmic and solar radiation environment found in space so that researchers can determine its biological effects. Under the direction of Senior Scientist Betsy Sutherland, Cutter performed research on DNA damage to cell clusters due to space radiation and subsequent repair of that damage. The goal of these studies is to help assess risks to astronauts so that adequate preventive measures can be designed for long space missions.

Currently, Cutter performs research in genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as part of her curriculum at Stony Brook.  She hopes to earn her Ph.D. in genetics in 2011, and to work in academia, teaching and pursuing research in her field.

NOTE TO LOCAL EDITORS: Noelle Cutter is a resident of Farmingdale, NY.

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