2022 Montgomery Award Winners

Awards Recognize selfless service to the graduate and professional community

The Texas A&M Graduate and Professional School has announced its 2022 Montgomery Award winners. Montgomery Awards are given to graduate or professional students who, through demonstrated leadership in recognized graduate student groups or service organizations, make major contributions toward creating academic and professional opportunities and enhancing quality of life for their fellow graduate and professional students, while also excelling as scholars.

Montgomery Awards are funded by endowed gifts from the Jeff ‘41 and Leonora Montgomery family. The Graduate and Professional School solicits nominations for the awards from the campus community and selects awardees from the nomination pool. Each awardee receives a commemorative plaque and $1,000.

“These students are future leaders,” said Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, Associate Provost and Dean of the Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School. “They volunteer and take on leadership roles to help make those around them better. In doing so, they exemplify selfless service to strengthen our graduate and professional community at Texas A&M and make broader impacts beyond our campus,” Butler-Purry said.

This years winners:

Khushboo Rastogi

Khushboo is a Ph.D. candidate in the Genetics and Genomics Interdisciplinary Program, under the advisement of Dr. Endang Septiningsih. Her research assesses rice genomic resources for nutritional quality and stress tolerance. She is active in the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program and served as a Scholarship Chair. Khushboo has served as Treasurer and Awards Chair for the Genetics Graduate Student Association (GGSA) and as a Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) senator. She is also Vice Chair of the student-led Texas A&M Genome Editing Symposium, which brings together all individuals interested in gene editing as it relates to agriculture and life science.
 

Ellen Song

Ellen Song is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry under the advisement of Dr. Kim Dunbar. Ellen’s research focuses on designing and understanding structure-function relationships of dirhodium complexes as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy and dye-sensitized solar cell applications. Ellen is a passionate advocate for promoting science in marginalized communities. She has served as President of the Organization for Cultural Diversity in Chemistry, President of the Phi Lambda Upsilon Chemistry Honors Society, and founder of Scientists and Local Schools.