Six UConn undergraduates, two current graduate students, and four alumni have won National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.<\/p>\n
The oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the NSF-GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM fields who are pursuing research-based master\u2019s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions.\u00a0In addition to a three-year annual stipend of $34,000, plus another $12,000 paid to the student\u2019s home institution, fellows have access to a wide range of professional development opportunities over the course of their graduate careers.<\/p>\n
The NSF-GRFP are highly competitive. UConn’s successful candidates are among 2,000 winners selected from 12,000 applicants, and the number of applicants has been restricted in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NSF-GRFP is arguably the premier federally funded fellowship for aspiring scientists,” says Vin Moscardelli, director of UConn’s Office of National Scholarships & Fellowships. “The applications are long and involved, and only the best and brightest seniors and early career graduate students are encouraged to apply.<\/p>\n
“Forty-two NSF Graduate Research Fellows have gone on to win Nobel Prizes,” Moscardelli adds, “and the program counts accomplished scientists like Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Freakonomics<\/em> co-author Steven Levitt, and U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu among its alumni.\u201d<\/p>\n This year’s UConn winners are:<\/p>\n Colby Buehler \u201918 (ENG)<\/strong> of Canton, Connecticut, has earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in chemical engineering, with a minor in environmental engineering. An honors student, he was an undergraduate researcher in the Computational Atmospheric Chemistry and Exposure Lab, and received an IDEA grant to conduct summer research on pesticide drift from conventional to organic farmland. He hopes to pursue an academic career studying the environmental chemistry of the atmosphere.<\/p>\n Sydney Carr \u201918 (CLAS)<\/strong> of Hamden, Connecticut, is graduating with a BA in political science with a minor in Africana studies, and plans to earn a Ph.D. in political science and public policy at the University of Michigan. During her time at UConn, she participated in UConn\u2019s Honors Congressional Internship program in the office of Rosa DeLauro, held a research internship at the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute at Duke University in 2017, and served as president of UConn\u2019s chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. Carr competed in the social science division of the fellowship competition.<\/p>\n