Contact: Phil Hearn
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State honors student from Gulfport is receiving the university's Harned Memorial Scholarship, which annually recognizes the efforts and achievements of "worthy students in microbiology."
Senior Stacey A. Ritter recently was chosen for the $1,000 award that is a memorial to the late professor Horace H. Harned Sr.
Head of then-Mississippi A&M and Mississippi State College's bacteriology department from 1913 to 1958, he also is the namesake of Harned Hall, which once housed the university library and now is home to the biological sciences department.
"Students possessing your scholarly dedication and enthusiasm for the study of microbiology make teaching satisfying and fun," scholarship coordinator Franklin R. Champlin said in his notification letter to Ritter.
Champlin said Harned's children established the scholars program some years ago so biological sciences faculty members could "honor one outstanding undergraduate microbiology major" each year. He said the endowment also "reflects the generosity" of the Harned family.
"We (department faculty) were in complete agreement in our decision to recognize Stacey on the basis of her academic performance over the past year," added Champlin. In addition to being a professor of microbiology with a joint academic appointment in the College of Veterinary Medicine, he is the university's biosafety officer.
Ritter, a President's List Scholar who has maintained a 3.94 grade-point average (based on a 4.0 scale), plans to pursue a doctor of dentistry degree--with a possible specialization--after graduation from MSU.
The daughter of Ronald and Jeanna Ritter, she earlier was selected for University Honors Program and College of Arts and Sciences' H. Dean Andrews scholarships.
"I am honored to receive this award from the microbiology faculty at MSU," she said. "Microbiology has offered me the opportunity to study both bacterial and viral disease-causing pathogens to the human body.
"I feel the microbiology curriculum has given me a solid framework of knowledge to enter professional school," added Ritter, who also is community service director for the MSU Student Association.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Ritter at (662) 325-9348 or sar67@msstate.edu; or Dr. Champlin at 325-7595 or franko@research.msstate.edu.