Nine engineering doctoral students have been awarded a prestigious government-funded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Three engineering undergraduate students also have received NSF fellowships
NSF Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 allowance for tuition and fees for a research-based master’s or doctoral degree in in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. Annually, the NSF awards approximately 1,500 fellowships from an applicant pool of over 12,000.
“This is an outstanding result for our engineering school,” said Duco Jansen, senior associate dean for Graduate Education and Faculty Affairs. “The NSF Graduate Fellowships are extremely competitive and winning 12 of them for a relatively small school like ours is a real testament to the quality and dedication of our students and the mentorship they receive from our faculty.”
The School of Engineering recipients are:
Biomedical engineering
- Morgan Ringel, intraoperative optical coherence tomography and ophthalmic surgical guidance/Professor Kenny Tao
- Jenna Dombroski, vaccine for triple-negative breast cancer/Professor Michael King
- Taylor Sheehy, therapeutics and drug delivery technologies to enhance responses to cancer immunotherapy/Professor John Wilson
- Joanne Lee, nanomedicine, surface engineering to control cellular actions/Professor Jonathan Brunger
Mechanical engineering
- David Ziemnicki, biomechanics and assistive technologies/Professor Karl Zelik
- Rachel Teater, novel lower-limb prosthetic devices/Professor Karl Zelik
- Beau Johnson, design of rehabilitative and assistive technologies/Professor Michael Goldfarb
Chemical engineering
- Lucinda Pastora, biomaterials, nanotechnology and delivery of immunotherapeutics/Professor John Wilson
Civil engineering
- George Gunter, applications of cyber-physical systems to civil infrastructure/Professor Dan Work
The three undergraduate recipients are Abigail Ayers, biomedical engineering; Hannah Knight, chemical engineering; and Luke Neise, mechanical engineering.
The NSF GRFP is the country’s oldest graduate fellowship program directly supporting graduate students since 1952. GRFP is a critical program in NSF’s overall strategy to develop a globally engaged workforce necessary to ensure the nation’s leadership in advancing science and engineering research and innovation. A hallmark of GRFP is its contribution to increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce, including geographic distribution, as well as the participation of women, underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities and veterans.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615 343-6314
brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu