Three doctoral students at West Virginia University have been named Ruby Fellows as part of the 2024 class. This year’s fellows, Annabelle Smith, Suchindram Dasgupta and Sloane Sirota, will each receive a $34,000 stipend, a $2,000 travel grant and a tuition waiver to support their research at WVU.
The recipients must pursue graduate degrees in energy and environmental sciences, biological, biotechnical and biomedical sciences, or fields related to biometrics, nanotechnology and material science, security, sensing, and forensic sciences.
The Ruby Scholars Graduate Fellows Program, established in 2011 by the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, supports incoming doctoral scholars who aim to benefit not only WVU but also the broader community and world through their research. Since its inception, 53 students have received financial support from the program.
“With the generous support of the Ruby Fellows program, WVU is able to bring exceptional young researchers to our campus each year,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed. “This year’s Fellows have already made great strides in their research and are poised to be significant changemakers in their fields of study.”
Annabelle Smith
Hailing from Hagerstown, Maryland, Annabelle Smith started her undergraduate education in WVU’s music and health program. Her interest in science led her to explore microbiology.
“Microbiology was something I had never done before, so I was like, ‘OK, let me try it out,’” Smith said. “It was kind of random and I just thought it would be fun, but now it is something I really love doing.”
Smith participated in the Research Apprenticeship Program during her freshman year, studying functional stimulation of the deltoid muscle to relieve shoulder subluxation. This experience sparked her passion for research, leading her to switch majors to immunology and medical microbiology.
“Immunology is something that we don’t talk about. It is so cool to actually study deep into your immune system and how bacteria and viruses are actually affecting you,” she said. “I really just want to do as much as I can and would like to have a meaningful project that I feel is going to push us forward scientifically.”
Smith will continue her studies and research on host pathogen interactions at WVU, aiming to gain confidence in her research abilities while pursuing her doctorate in immunology and microbial pathogenesis.
Suchindram Dasgupta
Originally from Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Suchindram Dasgupta earned his bachelor’s degree in astrophysics and mathematics from Rutgers University. His fascination with the universe began in childhood.
“I used to read books about the solar system and the Milky Way as a kid,” Dasgupta said. “I kind of fostered that love over a long time.”
During his undergraduate studies, Dasgupta researched the quantum mechanical behavior of hydrogenic ions, star formation in dwarf galaxies and the radio afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, publishing a paper as the lead author.
“The universe has so much more information that we have barely tapped into and that excites me as a researcher,” he said.
Dasgupta will pursue his doctorate in physics at WVU, focusing on advancing gravitational wave astronomy. He aims to improve the detection and localization of gravitational waves and test gravitational physics.
Sloane Sirota
Sloane Sirota of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, couldn’t decide which science course to take in high school, ultimately choosing physics for its challenging nature. This interest led her to pursue an undergraduate degree in physics at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
“Physics was the only class I felt really challenged in and I thought that was exciting,” Sirota said. “It kind of applied to everything and I felt like it tied everything else that I had learned together.”
During her time at McGill, Sirota researched strange particles, proton-proton collisions, and fast radio bursts. She is a part of the CHIME Collaboration, aiding in the release of its second catalog of fast radio bursts.
“Things are always changing. There are new papers coming out every day, and there is always more to learn,” she said. “It is a field that is always evolving and no matter what you are doing in physics, you can see it in your everyday life.”
Sirota will continue her physics education and research at WVU, aiming to work with Duncan Lorimer FRS, one of the WVU professors credited with discovering fast radio bursts.
The Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust created the Ruby Scholars Graduate Fellows program to honor Hazel Ruby McQuain, a longtime philanthropic supporter of WVU. Her contributions, along with those from the trust, were made through the WVU Foundation, the organization administering private donations for the University.
