RAND Institute Awards Graduate Scholarships to Southern Miss Students
Hattiesburg/Ocean Springs – The research of two University of Southern Mississippi graduate students is being supported with scholarship funding by the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute.
Patricia Michelle Buzard of San Diego, a doctoral student in history, and Melissa Pratt-Zossoungbo, a graduate student in coastal sciences from Huntsville, Ala., received RSPGI Scholar Awards, funded by the Luce Foundation.
The scholarships are awarded to students conducting research on issues facing the Gulf States region and who attend universities that are members of the RGSPI university partnership, which includes Southern Miss. Qualified research topics may address issues that evolved following hurricanes Katrina and Rita; or they may cover long-term, systemic issues in the region.
“The initiative shown by these students is exactly the kind of research and analysis needed to generate real-world solutions to help the region recover and grow strong,” said George Penick, director of RGSPI. “We are very proud to be able to award these scholarships to assist these students in their work.”
Buzard received a $20,000 scholarship grant for her proposed dissertation on the transformation of racial justice from 1800 to 2006, titled “Race and Justice in Mississippi’s Piney Woods.” She plans to use the RAND funding to support required for completion of her dissertation, which includes travel to Washington, D. C. to conduct research at the National Archives, and throughout Mississippi and Louisiana to conduct a series of oral histories and do other archival work.
She credited the professors on her dissertation committee, including former Southern Miss history professor Dr. Bradley Bond, for providing assistance in editing and research she said was critical in her acquisition of the RAND grant.
“I am deeply honored and thrilled to receive such a generous grant from an extremely prestigious organization,” Buzard said. “The RAND dissertation award will greatly advance my research on racial relations in the Central Piney Woods and I hope my work will further the study of racial justice.”
As a visiting instructor at Southern Miss, Buzard furthered her examination of race relations by designing an honor’s history course around the theme of prejudice and violence, and a History of Modern Terrorism seminar that included an analysis of white supremacist terror groups.
Southern Miss history professor Dr. Greg O’Brien described Buzard as one of the department’s most outstanding doctoral students, and said that the university was the perfect place for her to conduct her research because of its archival resources on civil rights and southern history, and the history department faculty’s expertise in the field.
“Patricia is an indefatigable researcher who will change our understanding of civil rights and southern history with her dissertation that examines the relationship between the civil rights movement and the southern legal system,” O’Brien said. “She deserves this recognition for her innovative research, and we look forward to seeing more such honors come her way in the future.”
Pratt-Zossoungbo, received a $10,000 scholarship to fund her proposed master’s thesis on the development of a seagrass nursery to provide plants for restoration in South Mississippi. Her research focuses on marsh and seagrass restoration, and the use of mycorrhizal fungus to enhance the ability of these plants to survive.
“I will be looking at the effect mycorrhizal fungus has on Juncus roemerianus and Spartina alterniflora seedlings and mature plants relating to plant health and growth,” she said. “I will also be studying the plants’ ability to tolerate salinity stress with the added mycorrhizae.”
“I am very happy to have a student awarded the Rand scholarship in her first year as a master's student,” said Southern Miss assistant professor of marine botany Dr. Patrick Biber. “This speaks to the high caliber of our graduate students and quality education they receive in the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences.”
RGSPI is a division of the RAND Corporation, a non-profit research organization. The institute, based in Jackson, was created in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the Gulf South to provide a long-term capacity to develop informed public policy in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.
University of Southern Mississippi graduate student Melissa Pratt-Zossoungbo color codes native coastal marsh plants for her master's thesis research at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss. Her research focuses on marsh and seagrass restoration, and the use of mycorrhizal fungus to enhance the ability of these plants to survive. (Southern Miss Public Relations Photo by Linda Skupien)
University of Southern Mississippi graduate student Melissa Pratt-Zossoungbo checks seeds of native Mississippi saltmarsh plants that she is nurturing as part of her research at the University's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss. Her scientific investigation could be a factor in developing a steady supply of robust native plants for use in coastal wetlands remediation projects. (Southern Miss Public Relations Photo by Martha Duvall)