Nineteen graduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill have received prestigious awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) for 2021. Twenty graduate students received honorable mentions.
The fellowships recognize and support outstanding graduate students in STEM-related fields who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees. Fellows receive a three-year stipend, educational support, and opportunities for international research and professional development. The fellowships launched in 1952.
Suzanne Barbour, dean at The Graduate School, said the NSF awards are a testament to the University’s strong research program that draws outstanding students to its graduate programs.
“We have so much to celebrate,” Barbour said. “From chemistry to anthropology, this year’s NSF GRFP recipients represent a breadth of endeavors that affect the lives or North Carolinians and beyond. I am proud of these students and all of their accomplishments.”
This year’s recipients of GRFP awards, including many from the College of Arts & Sciences, include:
- Supraja Chittari (Department of Chemistry)
- Isabella Young (Eshelman School of Pharmacy)
- Ileana Faye Fenwick (Department of Marine Sciences)
- Mingyu Choi (Department of Pharmacology)
- Sarah Mae Parker (Curriculum in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology)
- Anna Kathryn Wheless (Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics)
- Mariah Stewart (Department of Pharmacology)
- Samantha Rose Litvin (Department of Chemistry)
- Rebecca Claire Radomsky (Department of Chemistry)
- Rachael Ann Jedlika Ditzler (Department of Chemistry)
- Benjamin Jared Kruse (Department of Chemistry)
- Olivia Sarita Chandrasekhar (Department of Chemistry)
- Taylor Shannon Stevenson (Department of Physics and Astronomy)
- Joseph Moscoso (Department of Physics and Astronomy)
- Adrienne Solange Bonar (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience)
- Moriah James (Department of Anthropology)
- Saud Jabr (Department of Geography)
- Anthony Sterling Lindsay (Department of Political Science)
- Austin Hoang-Nam Vo (Department of Sociology)
Honorable mentions include the following:
- Julia Anne Noonan Brom (Department of Chemistry)
- Emily Anne Churchman (Department of Physics and Astronomy)
- Rebecca Clark (Department of Chemistry)
- Rachel Cooke (Department of Chemistry)
- Mallory Jean Feldman (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience)
- Riya Gohil (Biological & Biomedical Sciences Program)
- Aliyah Griffith (Department of Marine Sciences)
- Tashii Brown (Department of Chemistry)
- Matthew Lanetti (Department of Chemistry)
- Dana Su-Ling Lim (Department of Biology)
- Lillian Christine Lowery (Department of Microbiology and Immunology)
- Lucy Lurie (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience)
- Madison McCall (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience)
- McKenzie Madison Murvin (Curriculum in Genetics and Molecular Biology)
- Olivia Havemeyer Pollak (Department of Psychology and Neuroscience)
- Cole Christopher Sorensen (Department of Chemistry)
- Ashley Trojniak (Eshelman School of Pharmacy)
- Seth D. Veenbaas (Department of Chemistry)
- Kayleigh Voos (Department of Cell Biology and Physiology)
- Jordan Young (Department of Sociology)
Barbour, Ph.D., is a former program director at the National Science Foundation. She has an appointment at the UNC School of Medicine as a professor of biochemistry and biophysics.
The Graduate School