The National Science Foundation has awarded Graduate Research Fellowships and honorable mentions to several UT undergraduate students, graduate students and recent alumni.
The Graduate Research Fellowship Program supports exceptional students pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM fields. Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 as well as a cost-of-education allowance of $16,000 to conduct research at any accredited U.S. graduate school.
This year, 51 UT-affiliated scholars received fellowships, with 21 being current graduate students. An additional 22 were awarded honorable mentions from the NSF, with 12 being current graduate students.
We have compiled the list of current UT graduate students below.
2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Recipients
- Cecelia Barr, engineering graduate student – Chemical Engineering
- William Fan, computer science graduate student – Robotics
- Connie Fralick, human development, culture, and learning sciences graduate student – Educational Psychology
- Madalyn Riana Gragg, physics graduate student – Condensed Matter Physics
- Jason Hillman, chemistry graduate student – Chemical Engineering
- Ashlyn Hobbs, engineering graduate student – Mechnical Engineering
- Daniel Hur, engineering graduate student – Mechnical Engineering
- Nimit Kalra, computer science graduate student (B.A., ’21) – Machine Learning
- Zeynep Korkmaz, engineering graduate student – Biomedical Engineering
- Aisha Lizaola, engineering graduate student – Materials Science and Engineering
- Benjamin August Lyons, mathematics graduate student – Analysis
- William Meiners, engineering graduate student – Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Lauren Mellinger, engineering graduate student – Chemical Engineering
- Delaney Elizabeth Miller, chemistry graduate student – Chemical Measurement and Imaging
- Elena Morales-Grahl, neuroscience graduate student – Neurosciences
- Vidhya Prabhu, computer science graduate student – Wired and Wireless Networking
- Arvin Ardebili Sharma, engineering graduate student – Materials Science and Engineering
- Kalina Soto Dusenbery, neuroscience graduate student – Neurosciences
- Vivek Tallavajhula, engineering graduate student – Quantum Engineering
- Ellie Toguchi-Tani, astronomy graduate student – Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Rita Tsapatsis, engineering graduate student – Biomedical Engineering
2026 Honorable Mentions
- Sasha Nicola Burckhardt, neuroscience graduate student – Neurosciences
- Nora Fischer, engineering graduate student – Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Mitchell Gale, physics graduate student – Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
- Ben Gonzalez, integrative biology graduate student – Evolutionary Biology
- Kristopher Hatch, engineering graduate student – Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Sofia Rachel McDonough, integrative biology graduate student – Ecology
- Marco Moriel, marine science graduate student – Geosciences/Marine Ecology
- John Pye, engineering graduate student – Aerospace Engineering
- Adi Sankaran, engineering graduate student – Chemical Engineering
- Kai Svenson, physics graduate student – Quantum Information Science
- Harshitha Venkatesh, psychology graduate student – School/Clinical Child Psychology
- Briaunna Zamarripa, chemistry graduate student – Chemical Synthesis
The full list of award offers can be found on the NSF website.