Alumni Receive Research Boost with NSF Graduate Fellowships

The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program is the nation’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in various STEM fields. This year, 2,074 awards were offered from a pool of almost 13,000 applicants. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support: an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000. Recipients of the fellowship have gone on to achieve substantial breakthroughs in their areas of research and become leaders in their areas of inquiry.

The NSF selected three Jonsson School alumni:

Erik Chow BS’19 earned his degree in biomedical engineering. He is a second-year PhD student at Cornell University, where he studies the nature and function of the glycocalyx, a coating that surrounds some cells and bacteria, and potential ways to exploit the glycocalyx for biomedical applications.

Jonathan Madera BS’19, MS’20 majored in mechanical engineering at UT Dallas and is now in his first year of his PhD program at UT Austin. His research in surgical robotics focuses on using brain signals and haptic feedback to enhance training programs for novice surgeons.

Nundini Rawal BS’20 earned her degree in biomedical engineering. She will join the University of Michigan in fall 2021 as a master’s student in mechanical engineering. In the neurobionics lab, she will study and develop wearable robotic systems to improve human locomotion.

A version of this story including all UT Dallas recipients in 2021 ran in News Center.