Forty-two Penn students and alumni awarded National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

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Forty-two Penn students and alumni have been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. These students and alumni were selected from over 13,000 applications nationwide. We congratulate these students, who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to their research, as well as the faculty mentors who have provided them with guidance and support along the way.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

For more information about applying for the NSF GRFP at Penn, visit: https://www.curf.upenn.edu/content/nsf.

Penn’s 2020-2021 NSF-GRFP recipients are:

• Amanda Bacon GAS PhD student (Physics and Astronomy) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Physics and Astronomy (Particle Physics)
• William Benman GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Canton, New York, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Vignesh Chandra Bhethanabotla COL/EAS 2020A (Physics) from Tampa, Florida, received an NSF in Engineering (Chemical Engineering)
• Molly Lynn Bucklin COL 2018A from Manlius, New York, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Immunology)
• Yueli Chen GAS PhD student (Chemistry) from East Elmhurst, New York, received an NSF in Materials Research (Polymers)
• Michael Joseph D'Agati GEP PhD student (Electrical and Systems Engineering) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
• Lilia Fernanda Escobedo GEP PhD student (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) from Ithaca, New York, received an NSF in Engineering (Chemical Engineering)
• Amanda Mirna Farah COL 2018A from Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Physics and Astronomy (Astronomy and Astrophysics)
• Paul Morgan Gehret GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Sam George Giannakoulias GAS PhD student (Chemistry) from Eldersburg, Maryland, received an NSF in Chemistry (Chemistry of Life Processes)
• Maya A. Hale BMP PhD student (Cell and Molecular Biology) from Windsor, Maryland, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Cell Biology)
• Rebecca Marie Haley GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Cape Coral, Florida, received an NSF in Engineering (Biomedical Engineering)
• Renee Lynn Hastings COL 2019A from Bernardsville, New Jersey, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Biophysics)
• John William Hewitt EAS 2018A from Rochester, Maryland, received an NSF in Comp/IS/Eng (Natural Language Processing)
• Erin Evonne Jean BMP PhD student (Immunology) from Frederick, Maryland, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Life Sciences- Immunology)
• Parker Lowe LaMascus GEP PhD student (Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics) from Edmond, Oklahoma, received an NSF in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering)
• Sonia Irene Lombroso BMP PhD student (Pharmacology) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Neurosciences)
• Sabina Rachel London COL 2020A (Biological Basis of Behavior) from Haworth, New Jersey, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Neurosciences)
• Hannah Loo BMP PhD student (Neuroscience Graduate Group) from Stony Brook, New York, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Neurosciences)
• Mark F Macerato COL 2019A from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Mathematical Sciences (Algebraic Geometry)
• Srinivas Mandyam COL 2020A (Physics) from Basking Ridge, New Jersey, received an NSF in Physics and Astronomy (Condensed Matter Physics)
• Victor Rafael Vazquez Marrero BMP PhD student (Immunology) from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Microbial Biology)
• Elizabeth Mercado Ayon BMP PhD student (Cell and Molecular Biology) from Ontario, California, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Neurosciences)
• Patrick John Mulcahey GEN Master’s student (Bioengineering) from Newtown, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Michael Douglas Murphy BMP PhD student (Neuroscience Graduate Group) from West Covina, California, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Neurosciences)
• Jordan Peeples GAS PhD student (Economics) from Griffin, Georgia, received an NSF in Social Sciences (Economics)
• Catherine Marie Porter GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Elana Pyfrom BMP PhD student (Cell and Molecular Biology) from Davidsonville, Maryland, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Systems and Molecular Biology)
• Hanna Frances Roenfanz GAS PhD student (Chemistry) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Chemistry (Chemical Synthesis)
• Janice Mireya Reynaga BMP PhD student (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) from Norco, California, received an NSF in Life Sciences (Biochemistry)
• Colleen Mary Reynolds GEN 2014C from Clifton, New Jersey, received an NSF in Materials Research (Metallic Materials)
• Will David Schupmann COL 2017A from Washington, DC, received an NSF in Social Sciences (Sociology)
• Sarah Jenell Shepherd GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Vancouver, WA, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Julia Jordan Spandorfer COL 2017A from Narberth, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Psychology (Developmental Psychology)
• Adithya Sriram COL 2020A (Physics) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Materials Research (Physics of Materials)
• Abriana J Stewart-Height GEP PhD student (Electrical and Systems Engineering) from Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Comp/IS/Eng (Robotics and Computer Vision)
• Sanjay Sriram Subramanian EAS 2019A from Naperville, Illinois, received an NSF in Comp/IS/Eng (Natural Language Processing)
• Valerie Jill Sydnor BMP PhD student (Neuroscience Graduate Group) from Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, received an NSF in Psychology (Cognitive Neuroscience)
• Michael P Tobin GEP PhD student (Bioengineering) from Nottingham, Maryland, received an NSF in Engineering (Bioengineering)
• Emily Katherine Walters LPS 2018A from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received an NSF in Comp/IS/Eng (Machine Learning)
• Olivia Abbie Werba GAS PhD student (Chemistry) from Dallas, Texas, received an NSF in Chemistry (Chemical Theory, Models and Computational Methods)
• Sarah Lamble Winton COL 2017A from Edina, Minnesota, received an NSF in Social Sciences (Economics)

As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The reputation of the GRFP follows recipients and often helps them become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching. Past fellows include 42 Nobel Prize winners, former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Google founder Sergey Brin, and Freakonomics co-author, Steven Levitt.

Fellows share in the prestige and opportunities that become available when they are selected. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose.

NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation's technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well-being of society at large.

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