Six Columbia University graduate students have won coveted Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships, more than awarded to any other university.

The grants of $12,500 each were awarded to 40 students for the study of ethical or religious values and support a year of uninterrupted work. The students, their departments and their dissertation projects are:

• Edwin F. Bryant of Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures; "In Defense of the Tradition: Mahabharata and Historicity."

• Paul Edison of Salt Lake City, Utah; history; "Latinizing America: French Science and the Cultural Colonization of Mexico, 1857-1914."

• Jennifer A. Greenfield of New York City; history; "In Search of the Social Bond: Political Economy and Bourgeois Ideology in 19th Century France."

• Erik M. Heen of Jersey City, N.J.; religion; "Saturnalicius Princeps: The Enthronement of Jesus in Early Christian Discourse."

• Jesse M. Lander of Bridgewater, Conn.; English and Comparative Literature; "Print, Polemic, and Popular Forms: Religion and Community in Early Modern England."

• Laura B. O'Connor of Booterstown, County Dublin, Ireland; English and Comparative Literature; "Celtic Resistance to Anglicization."

Bryant, Edison and Lander hold Columbia undergraduate degrees. The 40 winners were chosen from more than 500 applicants. Columbia's six led the University of Michigan with five and the John's Hopkins University with four.

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