alison cozzubo
She has only just turned 24 but already Alison's CV lists a range of achievements impressive for someone twice her age. The engineering undergraduate has been a research fellow with NASA, authored two research publications and won a host of awards linked to her engineering studies - not to mention having spent a year at the University of Dundee -a year she describes as 'one of the best in my life'.
But if there was ever any doubt about Alison's ability, her success now looks to have been sealed following her selection as one of America's top 60 undergraduates. USA Today newspaper selected Alison from more than 700 nominees nationwide to feature in their 2002 All-USA College Academic Team.
The honour marks the academic and personal achievements of some of America's brightest young lights and like many of her All-USA predecessors, Alison is tipped to achieve outstanding success.
In May she will graduate from the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, with both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Civil Engineering. Later this year she will begin a doctorate in Coastal/ Ocean Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - her first choice from the several prestigious universities which courted her.
It was during her study abroad exchange year at the University of Dundee, under the guidance of course leader Dr Peter Davies, that her interest in fluid dynamics was born. Dr Davies remembers Alison as 'a particularly keen and enthusiastic student' and was delighted with her decision to choose fluids as the foundation for her future career.
'About 70 percent of our planet is covered with water so it's critical that scientists and engineers understand our oceans,' Alison explains. 'The picture is incomplete and I want to spend my life piecing the puzzle together.'
In selecting Alison for the Academic Team, USA Today considered her commitment to helping young women succeed in the male-dominated field of engineering to be of equal importance to academic excellence.
Alison combines her studies with her role as programme assistant and historian for the Lore-El Centre for Women in Science and Engineering. She chose to study at Stevens Institute of Technology after attending the Lore-El Centre's pre-college ECOES (Exploring Career Options in Engineering and Science) programme, a high school outreach project to which she has given back considerable time and energy while studying at Stevens. 'Alison has been a tireless volunteer and has assumed many leadership roles in mentoring young women,' says Kathleen Bott Fleming, Director of the Lore-El Centre. 'Currently only 4 percent of the university engineering faculty in the United States are women, but Alison is determined to join their ranks and I have no doubt that she will get there,' she says.
The Women in Engineering Scholar Award is just one five major honours Alison has received for outstanding work in the field of engineering which recognise her academic excellence and leadership. Away from Stevens, she is an executive board member of both the Society of Women Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Yet it was the example she set by dropping out of college in her second semester to care for her terminally ill father that helped inspire her college professors to nominate her for the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.
Alison's promise to her father that she would finish college has inspired her to strive for her goal - to become a professor and academic researcher. And as the first in her family to attend college, her relatives are doubly proud of her success.
'I returned to college in 1998 and the next year came to Dundee where I was introduced to fluid dynamics. I just fell in love with it.' And all the rest, she says, has swum into place. Engineering students of 1999 will surely remember Alison Cozzubbo. They'll remember her because she was a female in a male dominated area. They'll remember her because she was American. But most of all they'll remember her because she was a real trailblazer Ð or whatever the equivalent is in fluid dynamics.
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