NSF Research Fellowships Awarded to Students, Alumni
April 4, 2014
Four Harvey Mudd College seniors—Sam Gutekunst, Miranda Parker, Sheena Patel and Jeremy Usatine—are recipients of this year’s National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding students pursuing advanced degrees in the STEM disciplines. Seven recent Harvey Mudd graduates also received the prestigious fellowships.
One current senior and 10 alumni received honorable mentions.
The fellowship supports graduate students pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. Recipients are awarded three years of research support, including an annual $32,000 stipend, $12,000 cost-of-education allowance, research opportunities abroad and access to the XSEDE Supercomputer. For meritorious applicants who do not receive fellowship awards, the NSF awards honorable mention, considered a significant academic achievement.
Gutekunst (mathematics) will pursue operations research or combinatorics, Parker (computer science) will be a PhD candidate at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing, Patel (physics) will study experimental condensed matter physics at either MIT or UCSD, and Usatine (mathematics) will enter Yale’s PhD program in mathematics.
The following Harvey Mudd alumni also received NSF fellowships:
| Alumni | Research Area of Study | Graduate School |
|---|---|---|
| Brendan Folie ’11 | Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics | University of California, Berkeley |
| Elissa Leonard ’12 | Biomedical Engineering | University of Texas at Austin |
| Benjamin Margolis ’10 | Electrical and Electronic Engineering | N/A |
| John Peebles ’13 | Algorithms and Theoretical Foundations |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Brian Stock ’09 | Life Sciences/Ecology | UC San Diego/Scripps Institution of Oceanography |
| Melissa Strait ’09 | Applied Mathematics | North Carolina State University |
| Edward Jay Wang ’12 | Human-Computer Interaction | University of Washington |
Harvey Mudd senior Matthew McDermott (mathematics) received an honorable mention, along with several alumni:
| Alumni | Research Area of Study | Graduate School |
|---|---|---|
| Olivia Beckwith ’13 | Algebra, Number Theory and Combinatorics | Emory University |
| Megan Campbell ’10 | Human-Computer Interaction | University of Washington |
| Alix Chan ’12 | Chemical Biology | Harvard University |
| Anne Clark ’13 | Genomics | University of Washington |
| Samuel Keene ’11 | Chemical and Material Physics | University of California, Irvine |
| Alice Paul ’12 | Industrial Engineering and Operations Research | Cornell University |
| Nicole Peck ’12 | Bioengineering | California Institute of Technology |
| Meera Punjiya ’12 | Electrical and Electronic Engineering | Tufts University |
| Alexandra Schofield ’13 | Artificial Intelligence | Cornell University |
| Bryan Teague ’10 | Electrical Engineering | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality and diversity of the nation’s base of science and engineering candidates. Fellows are seen as 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.
Program participants are expected to become experts who contribute significantly to research, education and innovation in the STEM fields. Past fellows include Google founder Sergey Brin, former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and numerous Nobel Prize winners.
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