U.Va. Graduate Students Secure Prestigious Fellowships

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards financial support to 1,000 students annually through its esteemed Graduate Research Fellowship Program.  The funding is nationally competitive and geared toward students in the early stages of research-based master’s and doctoral programs. 

Eleven U.Va. students will receive NSF Fellowships in 2006-07.  By department they are: Electrical and Computer Engineering: Neda Cvijetic; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering: Patrick Hopkins, Jessica Sheehan; Biomedical Engineering: Lauren Sefcik; Civil Engineering: Sara Boyd; Computer Science: Kristen Walcott; Biology: Kristine Grayson; Anthropology: William Schroeder, Lisa Stewart, Lydia Wilson; Psychology: Gary Sherman.

Lydia Wilson was granted an NSF fellowship based on a proposal to study 19th century Kenyan fugitive slave sites.  Dr. Adria LaViolette, chair of Wilson’s committee, said of Wilson “she brought a fantastic academic record to UVA and continues to build on that, and she wrote a very tight, very well reasoned proposal.”

Pam Norris, head of the U.Va. Microscale Transfer Lab where two NSF Fellows- Patrick Hopkins and Jessica Sheehan are working, commented on the NSF Fellowship selection process “It’s not just based on your academic credentials; it’s highly dependent on research experience.  Hopkins and Sheehan both received Double Hoo and Harrison research awards that supported their research as undergraduates at U.Va. and made them more competitive for the NSF funding.

U.Va.’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (VPRGS) now offers a Fellowship Enhancement for Outstanding Doctoral Candidates, enabling U.Va. to compete with private institutions for the best students.  Sara Boyd and Theresa Bankston (Chemical Engineering) both received the VPRGS award as incoming students.  Boyd has now been awarded an NSF Fellowship and Bankston received a 2006 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship.  This is a Department of Defense sponsored program, similar to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program in its nature and prestige.

Roseanne Ford, Associate VP for Research and Graduate Studies, commented on the importance of drawing such students to U.Va. “Good grad students definitely bring us recognition, and they’ll do so more and more as we work to strengthen our reputation as a top research university.”