A record 34 Illinois graduate students were recently selected to receive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships beginning this fall. We are proud to announce that six of our own graduate students are among the recipients.

Stephen Ammann (White Group)

Brandon Burkhart (Mitchell Group)

Jacob Faucheaux (Jain Group)

Jessica Pearson (McCall Group)

Michelle Richter (Hergenrother Group)

Aaron Routzahn (Jain Group)

In an e-mail to the Graduate College Faculty, Dean Dutta shared, "This is the most NSF Fellowships we have won in any year since the program's inception back in 1952."

The NSF made 2,000 award offers but received over 13,000 applications for the 2013 competition. Per the NSF GRFP website "The GRFP 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 US institutions. The NSF welcomes applications from all qualified students and strongly encourages under-represented populations, including women, under-represented racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, to apply for this fellowship."

A list of the 2013 awardees and honorable mentions can be found via FastLane.

Read the UI News Bureau article about the University of Illinois' record number of NSF fellowships here.