We just wanted to give a big shout out to all of the 2012 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship winners. This post is a roundup of recent articles we’ve collected from around the web. If you have an article and do not see it here, please feel free to add a link in the comments. Congrats everyone!
Alexandra Bentz (photo credit: Appalachian State University)
Appalachian State University
Have passion, seize opportunities and solve challenges, graduates told
Alexandra Bentz, received a $30,000 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. Read more.
From left to right: Erik Stout, Brian Perea, Michael Kenney, John Ingraham. (photo credit: Chakris Kussalanant)
Arizona State University
4 juniors win top national awards as up-and-coming scientists
Four remarkable ASU juniors who already are doing sophisticated research and presenting their work to national audiences have won Goldwater Scholarships, the nation’s premier awards for undergraduates studying science, math and engineering. Read more.
Bianca Williams (photo credit: Auburn University)
Auburn University
Two Auburn University seniors awarded National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships
Auburn University students Bianca Williams, a senior in chemical engineering, and Devin Kalafut, a senior in mechanical engineering, have been awarded National Science Foundation graduate fellowships. Read more.
(photo credit: Baylor University)
Baylor University
Baylor Doctoral Student Awarded National Science Foundation Fellowship
Zack Valdez, doctoral candidate in The Institute of Ecological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (TIE3S) at Baylor University, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellowship in the geosciences. Read more.
Caroline Smith (photo credit: Veenema Lab)
Boston College
BC grad student wins NSF graduate fellowship
Caroline Smith, graduate student in Alexa Veenema’s lab, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her research on the neural mechanisms regulating social novelty-seeking. Read more.
Elyas Bakhtiari (photo credit: Boston University)
Boston University
PhD candidate Bakhtiari awarded NSF Fellowship
Sociology Ph.D Candidate Elyas Bakhtiari was awarded one of three graduate student fellowships under the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellows Program. Read more.
Samuel McCandlish (photo credit: Brandeis University)
Brandeis University
Six scientists secure fellowships
Samuel McCandlish ’12 (Physics) , a current student who did research with Michael Hagan and Aparna Baskaran, resulting in a paper “Spontaneous segregation of self-propelled particles with different motilities” in Soft Matter(as a junior). Read more.
(photo credit: City University of New York)
City University of New York (CUNY)
Record 16 CUNY students win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
A record 16 CUNY students — 15 of whom earned undergraduate degrees at the University — have won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for work toward their master’s or doctoral degrees. Read more.
(photo credit: Rice University)
Rice University
20 NSF fellowships awarded to Rice students for graduate study
The six Rice seniors and 14 Rice graduate students chosen as NSF graduate research fellows will receive support for three years of graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in the fields of science and engineering relevant to the NSF’s mission. Read more.
Jennifer Sepulveda (photo credit: University of Arizona)
University of Arizona
Students Awarded NSF Graduate Fellowships
Five students who participated in federally funded graduate education preparatory programs for low-income, first-generation or underrepresented students at the University of Arizona have earned National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships. Read more.
Elizabeth (Lizzy) Mahoney (photo credit: University of Delaware)
University of Delaware
Ten win prestigious graduate fellowships from National Science Foundation
Ten University of Delaware students and recent alumni have received National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Program Fellowships. Numerous Nobel Prize winners are among past recipients of the prestigious award. Read more.
(photo credit: University of Hawaii at Hilo)
University of Hawaii at Hilo
UH Hilo students earn Graduate Fellowships
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has presented Graduate Student Fellowship Awards to a pair of University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo students enrolled in the Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science (TCBES) master’s degree program. Read more.
Left to Right: Cameron Williams, Audrey Cheong, Darren Seibert and Thomas Markovich (photo credit: University of Houston)
University of Houston
5 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships awarded to UH students, alumna
From cognitive neuroscience to theoretical physics, this year’s National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellows from the University of Houston (UH) have their sights set on careers in fields ranging from medicine to energy. Read more.
Adam J Dixon (photo credit: adamjdixon.com)
University of Virginia
Ten U.Va. Graduate Students Earn NSF fellowships
This year’s fellowship winners will be conducting graduate work, in biomedical engineering, developmental psychology and social psychology. Four of them, all in biomedical engineering, earned their bachelor’s degrees from U.Va. Read more.
Alex Lang, 2010 NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Alex Lang, a graduate student at Boston University, is paying it forward. On his personal website, AlexHunterLang.com, Alex has collected and posted many examples of winning essays written by him and other winners of the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, to help others prepare their applications. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program provides graduate students in science and engineering a three-year fellowship including an annual stipend of $30,000 and an additional $10K for your university. The application requires three letters of reference, a personal statement, and 2-page essays on previous research and proposed research. Alex gave us some insider tips.
1. Why did you decide to apply for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship?
I did some physics research as an undergraduate and loved it. So, when I was applying to graduate school, I also applied for various fellowships so that I could start the research phase of graduate school as soon as possible. While I applied for several fellowships, my main goal was always the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program since it offers flexibility. An applicant needs to specify their research interests (which I was unsure of at the time), but after talking to a current graduate student, I learned that the NSF really funds a person, not a project. This came in handy for me, since my application was on Quantum Computing but now I do Biophysics research.
2. What do you think made your application stand out?
I had several different research experiences as an undergraduate. I was lucky that the research I was doing for my senior thesis was progressing well enough to have a paper submission at the time of applying. I also had a unique extracurricular activity. I had been Vice President of my hometown School Board, and one of the big issues while I was on the board was the changing of the math curriculum. That experience gave me plenty to write about in my essays.
3. What tips would you give others applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship?
Don’t be intimidated! The application can seem daunting since it involves three essays judged by “Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.” Even today after applying and helping others apply, I can’t define what NSF means by those criteria. But, when I was applying, I found it really helpful to learn by example and I talked extensively with graduate students that had an NSF GRFP. I found it so helpful that it motivated me to put my essays on my website and try to collect as many other examples as I could find. So don’t be afraid to look and ask for help.
Alex Lang is a second year graduate student in Physics at Boston University and blogs on his experiences at alexhunterlang.com. He’s also getting married in May. Congrats Alex!
© Victoria Johnson 2012, all rights reserved.
In preparation for my upcoming seminar at MIT, I’ve gone back through my posts on science and engineering fellowships. Here’s a review of some of the best we’ve found.
Engineering:
- The Hertz Foundation Graduate Fellowship is a competitive and prestigious fellowship for exceptionally talented doctoral students in the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences.
- The Amelia Earhart Fellowship is a $10,000 award for women of any nationality pursuing a doctoral degree in the field of aerospace-related sciences and aerospace-related engineering.
- The Hydro Fellowship Program is awarded to mechanical and electrical engineering graduate students in their final year of study who are interested in conducting research related to the improvement of conventional hydropower.
- The KPCB Engineering Fellows Program is a paid summer fellowship for entrepreneurial engineering students at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Science:
- Yale University offers 20-25 annual Gruber Science Fellowships for students of any nationality pursuing a PhD in biomedical and biological sciences or in astronomy and astrophysics.
- The L’Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science is a competitive fellowship program that provides five awards of up to $60,000 to women postdoctoral researchers who are pursuing careers in the life and physical/material sciences, as well as mathematics, engineering and computer science.
Tech:
- Code for America is a highly competitive professional fellowship program that recuits talented web developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to work on innovative tech projects in city government agencies across the U.S., including Philadelphia, Seattle, Washington, DC and Boston.
- The Google Policy Fellowship is a paid summer fellowship for undergraduate, graduate, and law students to spend 10 weeks in Washington, DC, San Francisco, Toronto or Ottawa, Canada at public interest organizations working on public policy in broadband access, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy, and open government.
- The DHS Emerging Leaders in Cybersecurity is a paid professional fellowship program for computer science graduates; fellows complete rotational assignments at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC.
We hope to see you at our Spring 2012 University Tour in Boston! Read here for details.
The devastating earthquake that ruptured in Haiti in January 2010 is far off the media radar, yet Haiti still has a long road to recovery. Many hope to rebuild Haiti so that it can one day provide better education, infrastructure and health services for its citizens than ever before.
Some extraordinary people took the opportunity to make a real difference in Haiti through a fellowship. Jay Grahm won an AAAS Science & Technology Fellowship and went to Haiti to help build hand washing stations and provide other sanitation needs for growing camps full of displaced people.
This year Anand Habib, a senior from Houston, Texas studying biology at Stanford, won a Medical Missionaries Post-Baccalaureate Fellowship to spend a year serving at the St. Joseph Clinic in Thomassique, Haiti. Anand plans to become an infectious disease doctor.
There are also Haitians who have used fellowships to train abroad and bring skills and expertise back to Haiti. Pierre Fouché, a Fulbright Fellow from Haiti, studied at the University of Buffalo to learn more about building earthquake-proof structures. He went back to Haiti to train other engineers and architects working in the rebuilding effort.
Cynthia Robinson, director of the AAAS S&T Fellowships, said the efforts of those working in Haiti “are indicative of the skills that Fellows can offer by applying their knowledge in real-world situations to address challenges and bring about positive change.”