Ten UMass students were recently awarded fellowships through the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). With an average acceptance rate of 16%, these competitive fellowships provide financial support for graduate education in sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
These ten awards once again position UMass Amherst as the third leading institutional producer of GRFP recipients among Massachusetts colleges and universities, behind only MIT and Harvard. An additional ten individuals affiliated with UMass were awarded Honorable Mention in the GRFP competition; both the number of awardees and Honorable Mentions for 2020 are an increase over previous years.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellows for 2020 are:
Awardees:
Bridget Benner, graduate student, mechanical engineering
Brooke Burrows, graduate student, psychology
Stephanie Call, graduate student, chemical engineering
Seanne Clemente, graduate student, organismic and evolutionary biology
Jacob Davis, graduate student, mechanical engineering
Annabelle Flores-Bonilla, NIH PREP scholar, neuroscience
Rebecca Huber, graduate student, chemical engineering
Isabella Jaen Maisonet, undergraduate, chemistry
Rachel Jansen, undergraduate, biochemistry and molecular biology
Kelly McKeon, graduate student, geosciences
Honorable mention:
Elizabeth Voke, undergraduate, chemical engineering
Sean van Geldern, graduate student, physics
Kristyn Robinson, graduate student, molecular and cellular biology
Mèlise Edwards, graduate student, neuroscience
Kaitlyn Chhe, graduate student, chemistry
Craig Brinkerhoff, graduate student, civil engineering
Cierra Abellara, graduate student, psychology
Alexandra Zink, lab technician, environmental conservation
Robert Yvon, graduate student, molecular and cellular biology
Walter Young, graduate student, polymer science and engineering
The next NSF GRFP competition will open in August 2020. Current UMass undergraduates planning to attend graduate school beginning in fall 2021 as well as graduate students who just completed their first year of graduate school are eligible to apply. Students interested in applying or faculty seeking more information may contact Heidi Bauer-Clapp in the Graduate School Office of Professional Development at hbauerclapp@grad.umass.edu.