David Keellings and Sheldon Waugh are the awardees of the 2014 Ryan Poehling Fellowship.
This award of $1500 is made annually to two graduate students, one in the Ph.D. program and one in the M.S./M.A. program, who best exemplify the sustained academic excellence, commitment to departmental service and leadership of the graduate program that Ryan displayed. Their names will be inscribed on the plaques displayed in Turlington 3012.
All the members of the department join in congratulating David and Sheldon as being this year’s winners.
David Keellings is a PhD. candidate in the Geography Department at the University of Florida who will graduate in Spring 2014. He obtained his Master’s degree from the same department and has an Honors Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Central Florida. David’s research involves the modeling of extreme or rare weather events and much of his work focuses on the prediction of heat waves in the U.S. and Europe. He has also taught an undergraduate class called Extreme Weather at the University of Florida for four years and has been nominated for the Graduate School Teaching Award. David views teaching as not just an assignment to be carried out, but as an opportunity to pass on knowledge to students in an interesting, pleasurable, and meaningful way. David is from the town of Kirkintilloch (near Glasgow) in Scotland and is currently applying for academic positions at major institutions in the U.S.
Sheldon Waugh was born in Gloucester, UK in May of 1989. Sheldon then moved to Naples, Florida in 1996, where his hometown currently resides. Sheldon received his undergraduate education at the University of Florida, completing his Bachelor of Science in Geography in 2011. Sheldon is currently working on his MS in Geography, at UF, with a concentration in medical geography. Sheldon is also currently working on a Certificate of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology. His subject areas include the study of vector-borne diseases, ecological infectious disease modeling and public health. Sheldon’s goals after graduation include continuing his academic career as a PhD student studying either epidemiology or geography, continuing his work on mapping and studying infectious diseases.