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NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and Major External Fellowship Recipients

The Duke's Pratt School of Engineering encourages graduate students to seek support from important external fellowships. Earning these competitive fellowships goes a long way toward helping emerging scientists conduct their research while raising Duke Engineering’s profile and research portfolio in turn.

Duke Engineering has become the choice of recipients of these prestigious fellowships

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind in the United States, with a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their academic and professional careers.

The U.S. Department of Defense offers several prestigious fellowship opportunities, including the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NSDEG) Fellowship, and the Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service program.

2021-2022

Zach Holmes

Zach Holmes

Undergraduate Institution: Purdue University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Lingchong You
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Ouwen Huang

Ouwen Huang

Undergraduate Institution: Duke University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Mark Palmeri
Department: BME
Fellowship: NIH F30
Fellowship Use: Immediate

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Christopher Keys

Undergraduate Institution: California State University Sacramento
Duke Faculty Advisor: Krishnendu Chakrabarty
Department: ECE
Fellowship: Department of Defense SMART Scholarship
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Suphachart Leewiwatwong

Suphachart Leewiwatwong

Undergraduate Institution: King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand
Duke Faculty Advisor: Bastiaan Driehuys
Department: BME
Fellowship: Royal Thai Government Scholarship
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Joy Li

Joy Li

Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Tuan Vo-Dinh
Department: BME
Fellowship: The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Ethan LoCicero

Ethan LoCicero

Undergraduate Institution: University of Notre Dame
Duke Faculty Advisor: Leila Bridgeman
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Ty Naquin

Ty Naquin

Undergraduate Institution: Troy University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Tony Jun Huang
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Marisa Patsy

Marisa Patsy

Undergraduate Institution: University of Maryland
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nenad Bursac
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Jake Peloquin

Jake Peloquin

Undergraduate Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology
Duke Faculty Advisor: Ken Gall
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation GRF, National Science Foundation aiM NRT
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Shannon Plunkett

Shannon Plunkett

Undergraduate Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Duke Faculty Advisor: Helen Hsu-Kim
Department: CEE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Deferred

Joseph Rich

Joseph Rich

Undergraduate Institution: Brigham Young University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Tony Jun Huang
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

Josh Wu

Josh Wu

Undergraduate Institution: Duke University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Timothy Dunn
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation
Fellowship Use: Immediate

2020-2021

Casey Baker

Casey Baker

Undergraduate Institution: University of Virginia
Duke Faculty Advisor: Yiyang Gong
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Erika Chelales

Erika Chelales

Undergraduate Institution: Tulane University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Riley Deutsch

Riley Deutsch

Undergraduate Institution: University of Iowa
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Defense Science and Engineering

Lillian Ekem

Lillian Ekem

Undergraduate Institution: Yale University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation, Sloan Research Fellowship

Gavin Gonzales

Gavin Gonzales

Undergraduate Institution: University of New Mexico
Duke Faculty Advisor: Shyni Varghese, Stefan Zauscher
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Carson Key

Carson Key

Undergraduate Institution: North Carolina State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Tomer Rotstein

Tomer Rotstein

Undergraduate Institution: University of California Berkeley
Duke Faculty Advisor: Xiling Shen
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Curtis Shoyer

Curtis Shoyer

Undergraduate Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Duke Faculty Advisor: Brenton Hoffman
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Jonathan Su

Jonathan Su

Undergraduate Institution: Oregon State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Ashutosh Chilkoti
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Cyrus Tanade

Cyrus Tanade

Undergraduate Institution: University College London
Duke Faculty Advisor: Amanda Randles
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

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Ashley Williams

Undergraduate Institution: University of Illinois
Duke Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Viventi
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health F31

Brittani Carroll

Brittani Carroll

Undergraduate Institution: University of Evansville
Duke Faculty Advisor: Aaron Franklin
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Anne French

Anne French

Duke Faculty Advisor: Miroslav Pajic
Department: ECE
Fellowship: USAF Prestigious STEM PhD Fellowship

Spencer Hallyburton

Spence Hallyburton

Undergraduate Institution: Harvard University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Miroslav Pajic
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Elizabeth Keys

Elizabeth Keys

Undergraduate Institution: California State University, Sacramento
Duke Faculty Advisor: David Smith
Department: ECE
Fellowship: Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation

Innocent Kironji

Innocent Kironji

Duke Faculty Advisor: Leslie Collins
Department: ECE
Fellowship: The National GEM Consortium

Randy Linderman

Randy Linderman

Undergraduate Institution: Cornell University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Yiran Chen
Department: ECE
Fellowship: Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program

Kavinayan Sivakumar

Kavinayan Sivakumar

Duke Faculty Advisor: Michael Zavlanos
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Brittany Smith

Brittany Smith

Undergraduate Institution: University of Connecticut
Duke Faculty Advisor: Aaron Franklin
Department: ECE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Marcello DeLuca

Marcello DeLuca

Undergraduate Institution: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Duke Faculty Advisor: Gaurav Arya
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Judith Dominguez

Judith Dominguez

Undergraduate Institution: University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Duke Faculty Advisor: Christine Payne
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

2019-2020

Elise Adamson

Elise Adamson

Undergraduate Institution: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Duke Faculty Advisor: Kafui Dzirasa
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Kevin Choy

Kevin Choy

Undergraduate Institution: The University of Texas at Austin
Duke Faculty Advisor: Sina Farsiu
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Victoria D'Agostino

Victoria D'Agostino

Undergraduate Institution: Northeastern University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Gary Hu

Gary Hu

Undergraduate Institution: Washington University in St. Louis
Duke Faculty Advisor: John Dolbow
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: Idaho National Laboratory

Jessica LaLonde

Jessica LaLonde

Undergraduate Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Jennifer West
Department: MEMS
Fellowship: Sloan Research Fellowship & The National GEM Consortium

James Long

James Long

Undergraduate Institution: Rice University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Gregg Trahey
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Helena Ma

Helena Ma

Undergraduate Institution: Princeton University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Lingchong You
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Latifah Maasarani

Latifah Maasarani

Undergraduate Institution: University of Central Florida
Duke Faculty Advisor: Adam Wax
Department: BME
Fellowship: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation

Megan Madonna

Megan Madonna

Undergraduate Institution: Vanderbilt University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health F31

Robert Morhard

Robert Morhard

Undergraduate Institution: Carnegie Mellon University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Nimmi Ramanujam
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Institutes of Health F31

Grayson Rice

Grayson Rice

Undergraduate Institution: University of Michigan
Duke Faculty Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Department: BME
Fellowship: Sloan Research Fellowship

Dahlia Rohm

Dahlia Rohm

Undergraduate Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Department: BME
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

Paige Varner

Paige Varner

Undergraduate Institution: College of Charleston
Duke Faculty Advisor: Claudia Gunsch
Department: CEE
Fellowship: National Science Foundation

2018-2019

2018-2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellows

Anthony Alers

Anthony Alers

Undergraduate Institution: Johns Hopkins University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Marc Sommer
Department: BME

Katrina Barth

Katrina Barth

Undergraduate Institution: Wake Forest University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Viventi
Department: BME

Lexi Bounds

Lexi Bounds

Undergraduate Institution: Arizona State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Charles Gersbach
Department: BME

Nadrat Chowdhury

Nadrat Chowdhury

Undergraduate Institution: Arizona State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Mark Wiesner
Department: CEE

Elizabeth Curvino

Elizabeth Curvino

Undergraduate Institution: Vanderbilt University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Joel Collier
Department: BME

Chelsea Fries

Chelsea Fries

Undergraduate Institution: Northwestern University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Joel Collier
Department: BME

Anna Gilpin

Anna Gilpin

Undergraduate Institution: West Virginia University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Shyni Varghese
Department: BME

Ali Hasan

Ali Hasan

Undergraduate Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Duke Faculty Advisor: Sina Farsiu
Department: BME

Matthew Huber

Matthew Huber

Undergraduate Institution: Rhodes College
Duke Faculty Advisor: Gregg Trahey
Department: BME

Wesley Kendall

Wesley Kendall

Undergraduate Institution: Rutgers University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Adam Wax
Department: BME

Amy King

Amy King

Undergraduate Institution: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Duke Faculty Advisor: Laurens Howle
Department: MEMS

Juilee Malavade

Juilee Malavade

Undergraduate Institution: Rutgers University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Brent Hoffman
Department: BME

Gabriella Shull

Gabriella Shull

Undergraduate Institution: State University of New York Binghamton
Duke Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Viventi
Department: BME

Joana Sipe

Joana Sipe

Undergraduate Institution: Arizona State University
Duke Faculty Advisor: Mark Wiesner
Department: CEE

2017-2018

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Kristen Hagan
  • Abbigail Helfer
  • Anastasia Varanko
  • Veronica Gough

National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NSDEG) Fellowship

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Jon Stewart

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

  • Jim Turner

Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

  • Kevin McHugh

2016-2017

More about our 2016-17 NSF Graduate Research Fellows

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Nadia Abutaleb
  • Brian Allen
  • Sean Kelly
  • Robert Mines
  • Ismael Perez
  • Lucas Shores
  • Ellen Weburg
  • Kevin Zhou

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Nicholas Rogers

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Jorge Cardenas

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

  • William "Luke" Calkins
  • Garrett Wessler

2015-2016

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Aman Aberra
  • Bridget Crawford
  • Katelyn Flint
  • Zachary Steelman
  • Asli Unal
  • Noel Vera-Gonzalez
  • Jason Wang
  • Carolyn Zhang

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Brandon Hunter

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Ugonna Ohiri

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

  • Kristen Wiedenheft

2014-2015

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Daniela Cruz
  • Evan Gates
  • Derek Ho
  • Joseph Simon

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Amalia Turner

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Felicia McGuire

MEMS

  • Korine Duval

2013-2014

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Leigh Joan Atchison
  • Simone Costa
  • Jennifer Gamboa
  • Joshua Abram Hammer
  • Christopher Jackman
  • Erica Michelle Moore
  • Brandon Nichols
  • Stefan Roberts
  • Jacqueline Nicole Robinson-Hamm
  • Katy Rothenberg
  • Isaac Weitzhandler

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Courtney Gardner
  • Andrew Matsumoto

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Rafael Bello Fricks
  • John Patrick O'Hollaren

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

  • Katherine Marusak
  • Corey Oses
  • Dalton George Sycks

2012-2013

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Zachary Abzug
  • Oscar Carrasco-Zevallos
  • Brittany Davis
  • Megan Godsey
  • Priscilla Hwang
  • Kelli Luginbuhl
  • Hannah Meredith
  • James Polans
  • Hrishikesh Rao
  • Swarnali Sengupta
  • Wyatt Shields

Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Xue Feng
  • Anna Wilson

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Nicholas Czarnek
  • Heather Duschl

2011-2012

National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Fellowship Program

Biomedical Engineering

  • Laila Roudsari