EAST LANSING, Mich. – A total of twelve exceptional undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni from Michigan State University have been selected for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), along with nineteen honorable mentions.
The GRFP is the country’s oldest graduate fellowship program that supports graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees.
NSF Graduate Research Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $37,000, along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, 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. This year, 2,037 applicants were awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
“We are overjoyed that so many of our outstanding graduate students received highly regarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships,” said Dr. Pero G. Dagbovie, Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
“Their accomplishments speak to the importance of graduate education and collaborative research endeavors in the MSU community,” Dagbovie said. “The Graduate School team extends a hearty congratulations to all the recipients and honorable mentions from MSU.”
“Transformative research is at the heart of the Honors College community,” said Dr. Christopher P. Long, Dean of the MSU Honors College and of the College of Arts & Letters.
“We are proud of these Spartans for not only embracing research, but fusing it with their passions to build a more just and beautiful world. Congratulations to these extraordinary students and alumni,” Long said.
The following MSU students and alumni from the College of Natural Science are officially NSF Graduate Research Fellows:
- James Bingman is a PhD student majoring in Plant Biology.
- Maria Cruciani is a PhD student majoring in Mathematics Education.
- Jeanne Garriz is a PhD student majoring in Physics.
- Maxwell Harman is a PhD student double majoring in Genetics and Genome Sciences, and Molecular Plant Sciences.
- Dylan Mankel is a 2019 alumnus with two bachelor’s degrees in Astrophysics, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
- Annabelle McCarthy is a master’s student majoring in Integrative Biology.
- Caitlin McCormick is a PhD student majoring in Chemistry.
- Michele Weston is a PhD student majoring in Plant Biology. She also completed her undergraduate studies at MSU in 2014 with a degree in Biological Science.
- Samuel Sottile is a 2023 alumnus of MSU and the Honors College with a bachelor’s degree in Advanced Mathematics. He is MSU’s 18th Churchill Scholar and completing a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge.
Two Spartans are NSF Graduate Research Fellows from the College of Engineering:
- Max Foreback is a PhD student majoring in Computer Science.
- Benjamin Laubach is a 2023 MSU and Honors College alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.
This MSU alumna is a Fellow from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources:
- Rachel Drobnak is a master’s student in Crop and Soil Sciences. She is a 2023 MSU alumna with a bachelor’s degree in the same field. Drobnak is also an alumna of the Honors College, under which she was a Professorial Assistant and Schoenl Family Grant recipient.
The Graduate School is the principal advocate for graduate, graduate professional, and post-doctoral education at Michigan State University, and provides training opportunities for students and research trainees like the annual GRFP grant-writing workshop through the MSU AGEP Program. Additionally, the Graduate School collaborates with several minority-serving institutions and invites GRFP applicants from our partner institutions to participate in the annual workshop series.
The Distinguished Student Awards Office (formerly National/International Fellowships and Scholarships Office), administered by the Honors College, helps undergraduate and graduate students pursue major national and international opportunities by providing information and direct support throughout the competitive application processes.