By Sarah Stone
NC State University and the Goodnight Educational Foundation has selected a Wilson College of Textiles student for the inaugural class of a prestigious and significant scholarship.
Yiduo Yang, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in fiber and polymer science (FPS), is one of thirty doctoral students at NC State chosen to receive the Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship. Each fellowship student is guaranteed to earn an annual $40,000 stipend when totaled with existing assistantships and additional existing fellowships.
Inspired by form and function
Yang, who conducts research in Assistant Professor Rong Yin’s lab, earned her Master of Science in Textile Engineering from the Wilson College in December 2022.
“The Wilson College is a leader in the textile community,” Yang says, “and a great place to receive well-rounded knowledge in this field.”
The intersection between apparel and technology has interested Yang since her time studying at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University in China, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in both fashion and engineering.
“I found it interesting how researchers develop and play with different materials and structures to achieve diverse functions for real-life applications,” she says.
Her studies and research will focus on advancing smart textiles.
Making academia accessible
The Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship is open to doctoral students at NC State whose work focuses on STEM or education. The Goodnights’ generosity has created two undergraduate scholarship programs, 28 named faculty positions, a deanship and a program to invest in early-career faculty and support for additional endowed professorship funds. They say they established this new system of support to make the path to a career in academia more accessible for the next generation.
University leadership feel it will also prove key in continuing to enroll a diverse, intelligent and driven cohort of doctoral students.
“The opportunity to work with our remarkable faculty is one of the most powerful tools we have for recruiting top graduate students,” Chancellor Randy Woodson says. “The other is funding. Closing the funding gap for graduate education has emerged as one of our most urgent priorities, and Dr. and Mrs. Goodnight have stepped forward to help us begin to address this issue. We are truly grateful.”
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