Five Named NSF Graduate Research Fellows

Photo of all five Chemical Engineering NSF Fellowship recipients posing staggered on a stair well in front of trees. Five students from the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering have been named 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellows.

The highly competitive fellowships were awarded to just 2,000 recipients nationwide this year from 16,500 applicants. The fellowships provide three years of financial support, including a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance, for students pursuing a research-based master’s or doctoral degree in science or engineering.

White and blue chart indicating that UT has received the most NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Since 2013, 23 fellowships totalSince 2013, students from the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering have earned more NSF Graduate Research Fellowships than any other chemical engineering program in the country.

“NSF Graduate Fellowships are awarded to students judged to be exceptionally well prepared to advance science and technology through research,” said Tom Truskett, chair of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and Les and Sherri Stuewer Endowed Professor.“As one of the very best and largest chemical engineering programs in the US, we’re pleased—but not surprised—about our students success in winning these prestigious fellowships.”

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program has a track record of selecting recipients who become lifelong leaders and contribute to scientific innovation and teaching. Since the program’s inception in 1952, more than 30 NSF graduate research fellows have become Nobel laureates, and more than 440 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.

The 2015 class of NSF Fellows comes from 456 baccalaureate institutions, 72 more than in 2010, when the program began awarding 2,000 fellowships each year. This year’s awardees represent a diverse group of scientific disciplines and come from all states, as well as the District of Columbia, and commonwealths and territories of the United States.

2015 department NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipients include:

Student Level Research Group
Chelsea Clark Undergraduate Senior Contreras Group
Michelle Dose Graduate Freeman Lab
Matthew Carlson Undergraduate Senior Willson Group
Sai Gourisankar Undergraduate Senior Johnston Group
James Wagner Graduate Alper Group

 

Including this year’s recipients, the department currently has a total of 18 graduate students enrolled with NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. The department also hosts four National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellows, one NASA Fellow, two Environmental Protection Agency STAR fellows, and 5 international fellows funded by the Kwanjeong Educational Foundation, Fulbright, Takenaka Scholarship Foundation, and LG Chem, Ltd.

 

 

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