Fabry and Payadnya Receive Tracy A Hammer Graduate Student Award
PRIME doctoral students, Ashley Fabry and I Putu Ade “Andre” Payadnya, are the 2025-2026 recipients of the Tracy A. Hammer Graduate Student Award for Professional Development. This award is presented annually to one or two doctoral students in the College of Natural Science in recognition of their achievement and excellence, and in support of their professional development.
The professional development award was renamed in 1996 to memorialize 1995 co-recipient Tracy Anne Hammer. A native of New York, Hammer was the first dual degree candidate to pursue a doctoral degree in animal genetics through the Department of Microbiology and Veterinary Medicine. Her research centered on canine dilated cardiomyopathy. Hammer died, alongside her mother and 227 other passengers, in a plane crash shortly before graduation, and her degree was awarded posthumously. Hammer was on her way to France to present part of her dissertation research at a conference.
According to MSU’s College of Natural Science, this award recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students with a one-time stipend that can be used for travel support, research, or educational materials. The Tracy A. Hammer Award recipients receive a one-time stipend of $750.
Both Fabry and Payadnya are extremely honored to have receive the award and both also attended the College of Natural Science in-person awards ceremony that took place on April 10th.
Ashley Fabry is a fifth-year mathematics education doctoral student working on her
dissertation. She is researching ways to bring more relevance to math classrooms to
improve students’ math identity and give them a sense of belonging and empowerment.
She is also interested in literacy in mathematics and curriculum. She has been conducting
teacher action research on how to use relevant, real-world data to improve students’
math identities. Upon receiving this award, Ashley stated, “I am honored to receive
this award that invests in my continued learning, research, and professional growth.
I plan to use this award to attend conferences to share my dissertation research and
learn from others in our mathematics education community.”
Andre Payadnya is a first-year mathematics education doctoral student. He is interested
in the investigation of educational practices in designing new learning strategies that could
help students who struggle with math concepts, and in assessing how assistive technology
such as educational software and digital tools, among other technologies, could support
learners. Andre remarked, “This award is very important for me. This is a recognition and appreciation
of my works, as well as part of my professional and personal development.”
Congratulations to Ashley and Andre on receiving the Tracy A. Hammer Award for Professional Development this year!
