Timbuktu scholar wins national competition

Southern Univeristy Timbuktu Academy scholar and physics major Cacey Stevens, recently won the 2008 national competition for the Willie Hobbs Moore Scholarship, a prestigious graduate award of the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP).

The scholarship is named on honor of the first African-American woman to receive a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in physics.

Stevens received the award at the joint annual conference of the NSBP and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) February 23 in Washington, D.C. Stevens has been admitted, with full financial support, to the University of Chicago in its doctoral program to pursue studies in fluid dynamics.

Diola Bagayoko, director of the Timbuktu Academy and academic advisor and mentor to Cacey, said, "Ms. Stevens is a pleasant, polite, well-mannered, and hard-working African-American young lady who is determined to make significant contributions to physics and to society. Stevens possesses very favorable personality traits that further portend her success in graduate school and beyond."

The Timbuktu Academy is funded by the U.S. Department of Navy, Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the ExxonMobil Foundation. The program also receives substantial support from U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

For additional information about the academy, contact Bagayoko at (225) 771-2730 or by e-mail.