McKelvey Engineering students, alumni win NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Several students and alumni also won honorable mentions

Molly Olten 04.13.2022

Several McKelvey School of Engineering students and alumni have been offered the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. The fellowship includes a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, opportunities for international research and professional development, and the opportunity to conduct their own research. NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching and innovations in science and engineering.

In 2022, NSF made more than 2,000 fellowship offers to applicants. Nearly 1,300 applicants received honorable mentions, which is considered a significant academic achievement.

The new fellows from McKelvey Engineering include:

Kaseba Chibwe, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2020 and is a doctoral student in energy, environmental & chemical engineering;
Dean Ryan-Simmons, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and is a doctoral student in mechanical engineering;
John Peiffer, a first-year doctoral student in biomedical engineering;
Angelo Hawa, a candidate for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in aerospace engineering in May 2022;
Landon Tafoya, a candidate for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in astrophysics and astroparticle physics in May 2022.

Alumni recipients include:

Rachel Jakes, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering in 2021 and is pursing graduate studies at Case Western Reserve University;
Tavis Reed, who earned bachelor’s degrees in computer science and in applied science in 2020 and is studying at Princeton University;
Brandon Rios, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering in 2021 and will pursue graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Those receiving honorable mentions include:

Harper Bryan, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering & materials science;
Amanda Cimino, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University and is a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at WashU;
Robert DiChristofano, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics at WashU and is a doctoral student in the Division of Computational & Data Sciences;
William Hurley, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2021 at WashU and is a doctoral student at University of Michigan;
Elizabeth Ruth Johnson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at WashU and is pursing graduate studies at Northwestern University;
Patrick Wiecko, a candidate for a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with minors in general economics and computer science in May 2022.