The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship to 30 University of Texas at Austin students, including four graduate students and four undergraduates from the College of Natural Sciences.
The fellowship supports students with outstanding potential to excel in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The grant provides three years of funding, consisting of $12,000 per year for the cost of education and a $34,000 stipend for research that leads to a master's or doctorate degree in STEM. The new awardees were selected from more than 12,000 applicants and come from all 50 U.S. states, as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
"To support U.S. leadership and innovation in science and engineering, we must recognize and nurture talent from all of our nation's communities," said Jim Lewis, NSF acting Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources, in the announcement. "I am pleased that again this year, the competition has selected talented students from all economic backgrounds and all demographic categories. In addition, NSF worked successfully to accommodate students from U.S. islands devastated by Hurricanes Maria and Irma, so that they could still compete for a fellowship."
The eight recipients from the College of Natural Sciences represent a wide variety of departments, including three biology and three astronomy awardees. Last year, CNS also had a high number of outstanding students awarded the fellowship, with eight graduate students and 5 undergraduate students receiving the honor.
This year's fellows are:
Graduate Students:
- Hayley Elise Bedwell-Ivers (Evolutionary Biology)
- Natalie Foster (Physics and Astronomy)
- Rebecca Larson (Physics and Astronomy)
- Siyuan Stella Wang (Cell and Molecular Biology)
Undergraduate Students:
- Noor Al-Sayyad (Physics and Astronomy)
- Sana Saboowala (Biology Honors)
- Anirudh Sivakumar (Mathematics)
- James Sullivan (Mathematics)
- Aaron Barr (Physics)
- Jacyln Champagne (Astronomy)
- Simon d'Oelsnitz (Cell and Molecular Biology)
- Patrick Drew (Astronomy)
- Nicholas Ivers (Ecology, Evolution, Behavior)
- Philip Queller (Ecology, Evolution, Behavior)
- Nicholas Walker (Computer Science)
- Sachit Saksena (Biochemistry Honors)
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