The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced its 2015 class of NSF Graduate Research Fellows, and six UW-Madison chemistry graduate students are among the fellowship recipients.
Fellowship awardees include Alexa Barres (Mecozzi), Allison Cardiel (Choi), Kassandra Knapper (Goldsmith), Melinda Shearer (Hamers/Jin), Matthew Stolt (Jin), and Joseph Vasquez (Blackwell).
Honorable mentions include Amanda Buchberger (Li), Matthew Dent (Burstyn), Kirandeep Deol (Strieter), Nels Gerstner (Schomaker), Sarah Guillot (Hamers), Steven Larson (Gopalan), Lydia Manger (Goldsmith), Joshua Ostrander (Zanni), and Matthew Rush (Coon).
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) supports outstanding young scientists and engineers and works to support the future diversity of the U.S. STEM workforce. NSF received more than 16,000 applications for 2015 fellowships and selected 2,000 recipients. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, as well as notable business and U.S. government leaders.
Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $32,000 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 their home institution, according to NSF.