Ziwen Ling, a PhD. Candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), has become one of three winners of Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) General Academic Scholarship. The award ceremony was held during the winter Middle Tennessee ASHE chapter meeting at Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Region 3 Building.
This scholarship encourages those students seeking a career in the highway industry. This year, the chapter received 40 applications from 8 different Universities (2 from Christian Brothers, 3 from Lipscomb, 5 from MTSU, 7 from TSU, 7 from Tennessee Tech, 3 from Memphis, 7 from UT Chattanooga, and 6 from UT Knoxville).
“My advisor, Dr. Chris Cherry, is the one I really owe a lot of thanks to,” said Ziwen. “Professor Cherry cares about students, both in terms of their educational achievement and personal well-being. He is always supportive and understanding for me and my work.”
“I would also like to thank Dr. Shashi Nambisan and Dr. Lee Han, who provided input and support. This competitive scholarship, which would validate my contribution, can boost my career experience. I hope to participate in more conferences and meetings to communicate with scholars and engineers in this field. The ASHE scholarship will help me take this step in my educational career.”
In 2016, besides this scholarship, Ziwen was also awarded the Chancellor’s Extraordinary Professional Promise Award by UT, and a scholarship by Women’s Transportation Seminar-Center Virginia chapter. One of her papers achieved the first place of Student Paper Competition by Tennessee Section Institute of Transportation Engineers.