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Three Biology Students Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Graduate Students Undergraduates / 24 March 2021 /

Twenty-one current students and recent alumni of the University of Maryland received prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 

The awardees included three with ties to the Department of Biology:

  • Karen Gu, biological sciences graduate student (Advisor: Scott Juntti)
  • Madison Plunkert, biological sciences major (undergraduate researcher in Gerald Borgia's lab)
  • Elissa Moller (B.S. ’20, biological sciences) (undergraduate researcher in Sergei Sukharev's lab)

NSF fellows receive three years of support, including a $34,000 annual stipend, a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees and access to opportunities for professional development available.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. 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.

Since 1952, NSF has funded more than 60,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants. Currently, 42 fellows have gone on to become Nobel laureates, and more than 450 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.