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St. Olaf graduate Eric Weinhandl wins National Science Foundation Research Fellowship

By Amy Gage
August 15, 2002

Thanks to a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Eric Weinhandl will be paid to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota this fall -- and, more important, will get to continue his research into how two different types of kidney dialysis affect the health, mobility and well-being of patients whose kidneys have failed.

Weinhandl, a 2002 St. Olaf College graduate who majored in math with a concentration in statistics, was awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship last spring. He will receive a $21,000 annual stipend over the next three years, and the grant will cover the cost of his graduate school tuition.

Weinhandl will pursue a master's of science in biostatistics at the university this fall and will continue to work on the research project he has been conducting as an intern at Nephrology Analytical Services in Minneapolis. There, he's been studying the effectiveness of two types of kidney dialysis: hemodialysis, the common form, which requires a patient to be hooked up to a machine for several hours while the blood is cleansed, and the more patient-friendly peritoneal dialysis, in which the blood is cleansed through a catheter inserted into the abdomen, pumping water in to cleanse the blood and then pumping the water back out.

"It gives you more freedom in your lifestyle," he explains. "It allows a person to work and not have to have treatment five hours a day, three times a week. But the primary clinical question is, is there a difference in the quality of treatment?"

Weinhandl has been examining the mortality rate of patients on both types of dialysis, trying to determine if one form contributes to a greater chance of survival. He won't share his research results until they've been published, but he does acknowledge that the NSF grant will allow him to continue his career while he's furthering his education. "I'll have the freedom to do my own research," he says.

More than 6,500 people applied for the 900 grants that the NSF awarded this year. Matthew Richey, an associate professor of mathematics who chairs the mathematics department at St. Olaf, calls the research fellowship the most significant science award given to undergraduates who plan to pursue graduate degrees.

Even more significant, Richey adds, is having an honoree come from a liberal arts college rather than a "high-powered" research institution. The fifth St. Olaf graduate to win the NSF grant during the past decade, Weinhandl is widely acknowledged as one of the strongest students to emerge from the department, he says.

"The odds are stacked against someone coming out of a liberal arts college," says Weinhandl, who grew up in Cannon Falls, Minn. "Duke or Harvard, for example, have statistics departments, so students can do stats projects and research all four years."

Weinhandl credits his education at St. Olaf with helping him set priorities in life and discover who he could be. That includes making a difference in the world. "I got attracted to the biostatistics field because my findings someday could make an impact in the way kidney patients are treated and the quality of their lives," he says.

Because all patients go on Medicare automatically when their kidneys fail, the cost of kidney failure - both in dollars and in the quality of patients' lives - is a real and dramatic social issue that Weinhandl hopes he can help address.

"The incidence of kidney failure is going up dramatically - in the neighborhood of about 90,000 new cases a year. It costs about $50,000 a year for dialysis, and a transplant is in that neighborhood, too. So if we can find ways to treat people better, we in this country stand to gain a lot. It affects all of us."

St. Olaf College, a national leader among liberal arts institutions, fosters the development of mind, body and spirit. It is a residential college in Northfield, Minn., and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college provides personalized instruction and diverse learning environments, with nearly two-thirds of its students participating in international studies.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.