UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eight Penn State graduate students received U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for the 2025-26 academic year. These students join the 56 prior recipients continuing in the University’s graduate degree programs across seven academic colleges.
The NSF program, coordinated at Penn State by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School, supports outstanding graduate students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines; students in STEM education and learning research; and students in social and behavioral sciences pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees.
The 2025-26 cohort of new fellows at the University are:
- Viviana Anahi Caceres, doctoral student in physics
- Ethan Heidtman, doctoral student in geosciences
- Nigel Jaffe, doctoral student in psychology
- Sophia Mucciolo, doctoral student in ecology
- Kanishk Pandey, doctoral student in astronomy and astrophysics
- Kathryn Rex, doctoral student in biomedical engineering
- Julian Schima, doctoral student in meteorology and atmospheric science
- Valerie Diana Smykalov, doctoral student in environmental engineering with a dual title in biogeochemistry
According to the NSF website, “As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers.” This five-year fellowship provides three tenure years of annual stipend in the amount of $37,000, along with a $16,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees, paid to the institution, and 80% health insurance premium coverage. Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, NSF GRFP fellows will receive a $2,000 scholarship — $1,000 for fall and $1,000 for spring — for years they declare tenure. Up to 2,300 new fellowships are awarded each year nationwide.
The GRFP annual program solicitation is typically released in July and is available on the NSF website. Applications are accepted via the research.gov portal. Application deadlines begin in late October and vary depending on the field of study.
NSF-supported fields of study include: chemistry, computer and information science and engineering, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, materials research, mathematical sciences, physics and astronomy, psychology, social sciences, and STEM education and learning research.
Honorable Mentions
Several Penn State undergraduate or graduate students received honorable mentions on their GRFP applications. NSF awards honorable mentions to recognize high-achieving students who didn’t receive a fellowship offer. NSF honorable mentions are regarded as a high national academic achievement. Many of these students worked directly with the Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring (URFM) office, which supports both graduate and undergraduate students pursuing grant and fellowship opportunities through a series of informational webinars every spring in conjunction with the Fox Graduate School.
Honorable mentions include:
- Paige Alexander, doctoral student in entomology
- Ana Aviles Vargas, doctoral student in biomedical engineering
- Louis Betz, doctoral student in biomedical sciences
- Benjamin Bizzak, master’s student in mechanical engineering
- Ashley Elswick, doctoral student in political science
- Mia Esoldo, master’s student in entomology
- Natalie Ford, doctoral student in ecology
- Jonah Gray, doctoral student in ecology
- Justin Hassel, bachelor’s student in meteorology and atmospheric science
- Lucia Herrero, doctoral student in psychology
- Jonathon Hope, doctoral student in aerospace engineering
- Jacqueline Maureen Kiszka, bachelor’s student in geography
- Valeria Lee, doctoral student in entomology
- Zoe Marazita, doctoral student in mechanical engineering
- Elizabeth McAlpine-Bellis, doctoral student in ecology
- Maxwell Meyers, doctoral student in physics
- Yunyan Mo, doctoral student in biology
- Joshua Pan, doctoral student in meteorology and atmospheric science
- Luisa Robles Zaragoza, doctoral student in soil science with a dual title in biogeochemistry
- Lakelyn Smith, doctoral student in anthropology
- Matthew Stuber, doctoral student in mechanical engineering
- Hanh Nguyen Tran, doctoral student in molecular, cellular, and integrative biosciences
- Joseph Wolf, bachelor’s student in energy engineering
For additional information on the NSF GRFP, contact the Fox Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards Administration at fellowships@foxgradschool.psu.edu.
