Recent MSU civil engineering graduate receives $10,000 fellowship

June 7, 2006

New Mississippi State civil engineering graduate Kyle A. Frazier of Madison is receiving a nationally prestigious $10,000 fellowship to pursue advanced studies in his chosen field.

A summa cum laude graduate who completed his university studies last month with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, Frazier is one of only 35 engineering majors nationwide to receive a graduate fellowship from Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. He will receive the stipend over a one-year period.

Frazier enrolls this fall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has been admitted into master’s degree programs in both technology and policy, and to the department of civil and environmental engineering.

The son of Esther and the late Terry Frazier, he will work this summer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg.

Tau Beta Pi is the nation’s largest engineering honorary society, and membership represents the highest honor that may be obtained by an engineering student. Graduate fellowships are awarded on the basis of high scholarship, campus leadership and service, and promise of future contributions to the engineering profession.

While attending MSU, Frazier served as vice president of the campus TBP chapter and was involved or held office in several other honorary societies. He also was a Blaine Congressional Intern for the office of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and participated in a study-abroad program within MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering.

A consistent President’s List Scholar, Frazier placed third in the 2006 Daniel J. Mead National Student Paper Competition, sponsored by the American Society for Civil Engineers, for his research on risk management issues and globalization in civil engineering. He won first place for a paper presented at the 2006 ASCE Deep South Regional Student Conference.

“I believe globalization is fundamentally changing the world, and it is imperative that engineers recognize and adapt to these changes,” Frazier said.

NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Courtney Thompson.