The National Science Foundation has awarded 38 Graduate Research Fellowships to Rice University students.
Twenty-four are current or incoming graduate students, including three current Rice undergraduates, and a further 14 are undergraduates or alumni.
The prestigious fellowships are intended to develop the next generation of scientists and engineers through support of their graduate educations. Fellows are provided three years of financial support within a five-year fellowship period, including a $34,000 annual stipend and a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the graduate institution.
The funds are intended for graduate study that leads to a research-based master’s or doctoral degree in a STEM field.
Another six graduate students and six undergraduate students or alumni earned honorable mentions in this year’s awards.
“Rice congratulates our fellows and honorable mentions,” said Seiichi Matsuda, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies (GPS). “The 50 students recognized in this competition have worked hard and have achieved at the highest levels. It is a joy and a privilege to work with them.”
All graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who have won external fellowships will be honored at GPS’ annual Take the Cake event in the fall, where they will receive a cake to share with their research groups. Students can report fellowship wins at https://graduate.rice.edu/resources/take-the-cake.
Current undergraduates and alumni:
Lucrecia Aguilar -- life sciences, ecology
Leslie Arrazolo -- chemical engineering
Joshua Holder -- engineering
Minjung Kim -- chemical engineering
Amy Kuritzky -- social sciences
Dhilan Lahoti -- mathematics
Lilith Liang -- biomedical engineering
Arielle Liu -- biological anthropology
Ella Segal -- life sciences, ecology
Jordan Sims -- life sciences, biology
Yingxuan Tan -- life sciences, artificial intelligence
Martin Torres -- civil engineering
Alisa Webb -- mechanical engineering
Jim Zhang -- life sciences, structural biology
Current undergraduate/incoming graduate students:
Jaanita Mehrani -- physics and astronomy
Amelia Peeples -- environmental engineering
Allison Price -- environmental engineering
Current and incoming graduate students:
Madelyn Castro -- psychological sciences
Ellie Chen -- electrical and computer engineering
Jeremy Daum -- materials science and nanoengineering
Nyah Davis -- mathematics
Gabriela Franco -- bioengineering
Daniel Haller -- systems, synthetic and physical biology
Zina Helal -- bioengineering
Esther Jimenez – biochemistry and cell biology
Devon Kulhanek -- chemical and biomolecular engineering
Jee Sun Lee – sociology
Julieanne Montaquila -- ecology and evolutionary biology
Rubyann Olmos -- physics and astronomy
Jessica Persaud -- chemical and biomolecular engineering
Neethu Pottackal -- materials science and nanoengineering
William Schmid -- electrical and computer engineering
Elisabeth Silver -- psychological sciences
Sanjna Sukumaran -- materials science and nanoengineering
Joseph Swain -- chemistry
Hailey Szadowski -- systems, synthetic and physical biology
Catherine Tuppen -- electrical and computer engineering
Andrew Walters -- bioengineering
Honorable mention:
Graduate students:
Sarah Buzsaki -- chemistry
Ray Hagimoto -- physics and astronomy
Alianna Maguire -- materials science and nanoengineering
Austin Moser -- chemistry
Sherina Malkani -- bioengineering
Alexa Ornstein -- applied physics
Undergraduates:
Jacob Bhoi -- bioscience
John Tianci Li -- materials science and nanoengineering
Maia Helterbrand -- chemistry
Jared Nirenberg -- geosciences
Hallie Trial -- chemistry
Joycelyn Yiu -- bioengineering