Vanderbilt University doctoral student Jonathan L. Wellons has been awarded an Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Ph.D. Fellowship.
Wellons, who is pursuing a doctorate in computer science and plans to graduate in May 2010, received a $5,000 check April 6 from Norma Corrales of the AFCEA Educational Foundation. Also attending the presentation were School of Engineering Dean Kenneth F. Galloway, Dan Fleetwood, chair, department of electrical engineering and computer science; and Professor Yuan Xue, Wellons’ doctoral adviser.
Wellons’ research deals with robust routing algorithms for wireless networks. His interests include wireless mesh network routing, traffic engineering, programming languages, number theory, and computer science education.
He earned a B.A. degree in computer science with honors in May 2004 from Grinnell College. He was a software engineer at O’Reilly Media Inc. from 2004 to 2006, when he entered graduate school at Vanderbilt.
As an undergraduate at Grinnell, Wellons won the Linn Smith Prize for Excellence in Mathematics, and won first place in the Iowa Collegiate Mathematics Competition two years in a row.
Since arriving at Vanderbilt, he has co-authored four papers and a book chapter. Wellons is president of the Graduate Student Council. This past fall he was an invited keynote speaker at Western Kentucky University’s 28th annual Mathematics Symposium.