Graduate students garner valued NSF support
By Lin Lofley
Students in the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences work many hours in the laboratories, over many years, to earn their degrees. There’s not a lot of time to celebrate individual accomplishments.
But students, faculty, and Graduate School leadership gathered recently to celebrate the latest winners of graduate research fellowships presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
In all, six 2015 fellowship winners joined 10 colleagues who had previously won awards, raising the total of NSF-recognized students to 16 studying in labs across the campus.
Graduate students awarded fellowships this year are Sussana Ahmed Elkassih, Antonio Fernandez-Perez, Caroline Catherine Gillis, Genaro Hernandez, Andrew Terry Moehlman, and Allyson Rice.
“These awards not only recognize the demonstrated potential of these future research scientists, but reflect positively on the quality and depth of the research undertaken by UT Southwestern graduate students,” said Dr. Andrew Zinn, Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor of Internal Medicine, and in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development.
The NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program provides three years of financial support (a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the graduate institution) for study that leads to a research-based master’s or doctoral degree in science or engineering. In addition to funding for their research, awardees also may be eligible for access to cyberinfrastructure resources, opportunities for international research collaborations, and professional career development.
The NSF awarded 2,000 graduate research fellowships out of 16,500 applications in 2015. UT Southwestern submitted 26 applications.
In addition to the six NSF fellowship awardees, for the second consecutive year, a graduate student won a Ford Foundation Fellowship, an award created to increase diversity among the nation’s college and university faculties. Ford Foundation Fellowships are awarded in a national competition administered by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
In 2014, prior to being awarded an NSF fellowship this year, Mr. Hernandez was the first Ford Fellowship winner from UT Southwestern. This year he is joined by Andres Nevarez, one of 60 winners nationwide, who is studying biomedical science.
At the Graduate School celebration, Dr. Zinn expressed his appreciation for the students’ efforts, and encouraged them to continue to apply to programs in their field.
“It’s critical to students,” said Dr. Zinn. “They have to show the drive, determination, and persistence, and they must learn not to give up.”
The Graduate School’s leadership and staff, he said, are working to increase applications to programs such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.
“We have really quality students here, and they work hard. We are focused on these fellowships now, in part because success in these programs is one of the metrics for rating graduate schools,” Dr. Zinn said.
To facilitate NSF fellowship applications, Dr. Nancy Street, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, created a program to guide students through the application process with the help of Dr. Luke Rice, Associate Professor of Molecular Biophysics. Dr. Rice is the recipient of an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.
Elizabeth Aguilera, an NSF honoree in 2014, knows of the importance of these awards.
“Being honored by the NSF raises the bar for any student who gets that recognition,” Ms. Aguilera said. “When you put that on your CV, the perception that people have about you changes.”
Interestingly, NSF awards run in the Aguilera family. Ms. Aguilera’s father, Dr. Renato Aguilera, Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Biology at UT El Paso, also won an NSF award as a graduate student.
Dr. Rice is a Thomas O. Hicks Scholar in Medical Research.
Dr. Zinn holds the Rolf Haberecht and Ute Schwarz Haberecht Deanship of the UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
