Four undergraduate students and one doctoral student in materials science and engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology will receive annual scholarships through a joint effort with Caterpillar Inc. to promote economic development in the Asia-Pacific region.

The undergraduate students will each receive $2,500 and work as research assistants on Caterpillar-sponsored projects in the Missouri S&T materials science and engineering department. The Ph.D. student receives an annual stipend of more than $27,000 and an additional $10,000 for tuition and research support for the duration of his graduate program.

The university’s Caterpillar-APEC Scholars Program began in 2014 as an outgrowth of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a 22-country partnership that works to support sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Extending the university’s global reach while training the next generation of engineers is part of our core mission,” says Dr. Matthew O’Keefe, professor of metallurgical engineering and the department chair. “The partnership with Caterpillar allows Missouri S&T to also keep abreast of industry needs amid a dynamic and ever-changing world economy.”

Linda Harrell, Caterpillar’s Advanced Materials Technology Research manager, says, “This scholarship program offers a great research collaboration opportunity for our company, Missouri S&T and the students. It brings together our two organizations’ collective expertise, foundry capabilities and equipment that complements what we each have available at our locations. Beyond receiving scholarship money, the students work with us on real-world problems to grow their capabilities, while Caterpillar gets the benefit of exposure to the bright minds and fresh perspectives of the next generation of brilliant innovators.”

The four undergraduate scholarship winners are:

• Alexsandr Chernoff, senior, of Glenelg, Maryland;
• Joshua Green, senior, of Springfield, Missouri;
• Rebecca Molt, sophomore, of Camdenton, Missouri
• Hannah Westin, senior, of Holts Summit, Missouri

The Caterpillar-APEC fellow is Jie Wan of Xi’an in the Shaanxi Province of China, one of the APEC member nations. Wan’s doctoral research focuses on developing advanced white cast iron seal ring technology to improve the performance of large earth-moving vehicles. Under the guidance of Dr. David Van Aken, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of metallurgical engineering, his work focuses on developing new alloys and associated processing methods to improve wear performance, reduce cost and improve manufacturability.