Chemistry Grad Student at UA Wins Top NSF Award, Plans to Give Back By Teaching

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Melody Kelley, a graduate student studying chemistry at The University of Alabama, is focused on a high level of science, but she hasn’t forgotten what inspired her to pursue her education in the first place – a high school teacher.

“I decided to major in chemistry because of my high school chemistry teacher,” said Kelley. “There was a lot of hands-on experience in the class and the teacher made it so much more than just books.”

Originally from Detroit, Mich., the 24-year-old Kelley is a third-year graduate student working on her Ph.D. at UA with the goal to have the degree completed by the summer of 2012.

As a leading student, Kelley has received several awards to further her studies, including a fellowship from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program for her first two years of study and a UNCF/Merck Graduate Dissertation Fellowship, sponsored by the United Negro College Fund and Merck Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, Kelley received a prestigious fellowship from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program for her last three years of study.

Kelley is grateful for these awards, and also for the guidance that she received from her professors at UA. She said she is especially thankful to Dr. Silas Blackstock, professor of chemistry, and Dr. Viola Acoff, professor and head of the department of metallurgical and materials engineering, for their mentorship.

“Melody recently won two prestigious research fellowships this past spring (and turned down two others that would have covered the same period – Ford Foundation and SREB), said Dr. Blackstock. “She was very diligent in applying for external fellowship support and also highly successful in winning it!  This bodes well for her future academic career which is her professional goal.”

After graduation, Kelley plans on becoming a chemistry professor. “I want to be a professor because I want to have the ability to do research as well as teach,” she said. “Teaching gets you out of the lab, and the lab gets you away from teaching.”

Kelley says the fellowships are providing experiences that will prepare her for the future. “These awards give me a lot of great opportunities, including being able to speak at different conferences, meeting colleagues and traveling around the world,” she said. “It’s also a bit of academic freedom and I’m able to get get a good start professionally.”

Kelley, who is also raising a 3-year-old daughter, received an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Wayne State University. She has found the University to be a welcoming place.  “UA has managed to balance diversity and tradition. A lot of colleges have too much of one and not enough of the other,” she said.