NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Graduate research fellowships are some of the most important investments of extramural funding. This is 'seed money' for tomorrow's best scientists, many of whom are right here on the UGA campus. Evidence of that is 11 new National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships announced today:

The program fellowships, which recognize and support outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, are among the most competitive in the United States. The NSF received more than 14,000 applications for the 2014 competition, and made 2,000 fellowship award offers.

Seven of the 11 are from the Franklin College:

Karson Brooks, of Dothan, Alabama, received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Alabama in 2013, and he is now working toward a graduate degree in UGA's chemistry department. His research focuses on the modification of polymer brushes and brush systems.

Michael Burel, of Acworth, Georgia, graduated from UGA in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in cellular biology and a certificate in interdisciplinary writing. Now a doctoral student in stem cell biology at the New York University School of Medicine, Burel is working to understand how a single, mutant stem cell can completely dominate and replace a pool of normal stem cells in tissues.

Emily Carpinone, of Tampa, Florida, joined UGA after earning a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in 2013. She is currently a first-year graduate student in the UGA microbiology department working toward a doctoral degree. Her research focuses on a protein called Vibrio outer protein Q.

Nicholas Kalivoda, of Athens, Georgia, graduated from UGA in 2012 with a bachelor's degree in linguistics. He is now a doctoral candidate in linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Kalivoda's research focuses on the study of patterns in speech sounds, word order and their interconnections.

Michael Lonneman, of Independence, Kentucky, earned his bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Louisville in 2011. He is currently in the second year of his doctoral program in UGA's anthropology department. Lonneman's research explores how households participating in agriculture in the Dominican Republic are responding to economic and environmental change

Tatum Mortimer, of Waleska, Georgia, earned a bachelor's degree in microbiology from UGA in 2012. She is now a second-year graduate student in the Microbiology Doctoral Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mortimer's research focuses on the ecology and evolution of pathogenic bacteria

Addison Wright, of Marietta, Georgia, graduated from UGA in 2013 a double major in history and biochemistry and molecular biology. He is now pursuing a doctoral degree in the molecular and cell biology department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he plans to conduct research on a bacterial adaptive immune system known as CRISPR.

Great stuff. Congratulations to all these students and the Franklin departments they will call home. Some their best work will happen right here at UGA, and that's something we can all be excited about.

Image: 2012 photo of professor Boris Striepen, left, of the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases and Ph.D. student Maria Francia in his lab at the Coverdell Building. Courtesy UGA Photo services