Five Department of Bioengineering Ph.D. Students Awarded NSF Fellowships

Five Ph.D. students from the Knight Campus Department of Bioengineering have been awarded prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is considered the gold standard in graduate research fellowships and is only handed out to about 2,000 students nationwide.

Photo collage of Rose Hulsey-Vincent, DeShea Chasko, Malley Gautreaux, Iman von Briesen, David Frey, Nicholas Pancheri and Phillip Hernandez.
Clockwise from upper left: Rose Hulsey-Vincent, Malley Gautreaux, Phillip Hernandez, Iman von Briesen, Nicholas Pancheri, David Frey, and DeShea Chasko 

Fellowships went to David Frey, Phillip Hernandez, Nicholas Pancheri, Iman von Briesen and Malley Gautreaux. Ph.D students DeShea Chasko and Rose Hulsey-Vincent received honorable mentions, which are awarded to meritorious applicants and considered a significant national academic achievement.

The GRFP recognizes and provides three years of support for outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Each recipient will receive three years of financial support, as an annual stipend of $37,000. 

"It's an incredible and well-deserved honor to receive the NSF GRFP," said Danielle Benoit, Lorry Lokey Chair of the Department of Bioengineering. "We congratulate all of this year's recipients and honorable mentions."

Advisors and support teams play an important role in the GRFP process. Frey is advised by Marian Hettiaratchi, Hernandez by Bob Guldberg and Danielle Benoit, Gautreaux and Chasko by Gabriella Lindberg, Hulsey-Vincent by Tim Gardner, Pancheri by Bob Guldberg and Nick Willett and Von Briesen by Paul Dalton. The Knight Campus Impact Team, which includes Mark Blaine, Jim Hutchison, Nathan Jacobs, Andrew Nelson, Stacey York and Annie Zeidman-Karpinski, supported the application process.

This year's awardees join three previous Department of Bioengineering GRFP recipients Kaylee Meyers (2023), Jarod Forer (2022) and Yan Carlos Pacheco (2021).