There are many funding opportunities available for graduate students in the Biological Science Division. Approximately 12% of our students are supported by individual fellowships (at least 72 in 2025-26).
Have you received a fellowship? Please let Michele O'Neill know. Featuring current awardees helps students following in your footsteps to identify new funding opportunities.
| Student | Fellowship | Research topic | Degree program | Advisor |
| Antonopoulos, Mira | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Targeting transcription and translation of the antisense CCCCGG repeat expansion in C9ORF72 ALS/FTD | Neurobiology | Paschalis Kratsios |
| Attaway, Mary | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | The role of the transcription factor Ets1 in T cell selection and CD8αα+ IEL development | Immunology | Barbara Kee |
| Burch, Shalise | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Uncovering the Role of Retinoic Acid & Hedgehog Signaling in Trisomy 21-Related Heart Disease | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Ivan Moskowitz |
| Blaylock, Hunter | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Therapeutic restoration of CUX1 in -7/del(7q) acute myeloid leukemia | Cancer Biology | Megan McNerney |
| Cooley, Rory | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | How do cortical hierarchies mediate visual categorization | Computational Neuroscience | David Freeman |
| Durian, Sylvia | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Predicting neural coding in retinal activity | Computational Neuroscience | Stephanie Palmer |
| Epley, Benjamin | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | The evolution of molecular systems at the protein level | Ecology and Evolution | Joseph Thornton |
| Freeman, Jincong | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | The impact of hearing and vestibular problems on physical function, psychosocial well-being, and survival outcomes among breast cancer survivors | Public Health Sceinces | Dezheng Huo |
| Fulghum, Henry | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Functional dental morphology and dietary ecology of early mammals and their kin | Evolutionary Biology | Zhe-Xi Luo and Graham Slater |
| Graham, Taylor | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Development, stability, and antigen specificity of T follicular regulatory phenotype cells | Immunology | Peter Savage |
| Grandison, Brandon | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Eco-evolutionary dynamics | Ecology and Evolution | Luis Bettencourt |
| Hansen, Quincy | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Integrative Biology | ||
| Hoznek, Victoria | American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship | Patterned basement membrane mechanics control | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Sally Horne-Badovinac |
| Hsu, Jocelyn | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Mechanism of enhanced anti-tumor T cell capabilities | Cancer Biology | James Labelle |
| Igarashi, Maya | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Physical properties of heat shock condensates | Biophysical Sciences | David Pincus and Allison Squires |
| Johnson, Amanda | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Regulation of mesoderm fate patterning through multiscale dynamics | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Margaret Gardel |
| Johnson, Sami | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Motor Skill Acquisition, Generalizability, and Interference | Computational Neuroscience | Nicholas Hatsopoulos |
| Kang, Bowei | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Mapping Alzheimer's Disease Genes Across Multi-Omics, Tissues, and Cell Types Using Deep-Learning-Enhanced Methods | Public Health Sciences | Lin Chen |
| Kelly, Madeleine | Smithsonian Institution Predoctoral Fellowship | Bayesian modeling for reconstructing hominin paleoecology | Integrative Biology | Zeray Alemseged |
| Lee, KathyAnn | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Understanding the function of Merlin and Kibra in promoting Hippo Pathway activation | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Rick Fehon |
| Lin, Kyle | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Investigating Biomolecular Condensates and Heat Shock Proteins in Cellular Responses to Sublethal Heat Shock and Fever | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - MD/PhD Biophysical Sciences | David Drummond and Allison Squires |
| Komnick, Macy | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Regulation of exocrine pancreatic innate immunity via microbially induced IL-22 | Immunology | Daria Esterhazy |
| Krueger, Stephanie | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | The evolution of venom glands in teleost fish | Integrative Biology | Andrew Gillis |
| Maheshwari, Nikita | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Developmental acquisition of memory-phenotype CD8+ T cell function in infection and cancer | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - Immunology | Peter Savage |
| Martinez, Tanner | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Establishing CUX1 as a determinant of Hematopoietic Stem cell heterogeneity | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - MD/PhD Immunology | Megan McNerney |
| Martinez, Selena | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Paleobiology - diverse perspectives to advance our understanding of evolutionary history | Evolutionary Biology | Kenneth Angielczyk |
| Martinez-Navarrete, Wenceslao | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Weight-cycling exacerbates obesity-induced inflammation through the reprogramming of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells | Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition | Ada Weinstock |
| Melanson, Randy | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Investigating the role of Ets1 in natural killer cell terminal maturation and function | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - Immunology | Barbara Kee |
| Mutchler, Marquette | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Avian perception, evolution, phylogenomics | Evolutionary Biology | John Bates and Shannon Hackett |
| Newby, Christopher | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics | Marcos Sotomayor | |
| Norton de Matos, Salvador | American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship | Modulating Inflammation Through Antigen-Specific and Antigen-Agnostic Approaches in Atherosclerosis | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - MD/PhD - Molecular Engineering | Jeffrey Hubbell |
| Sheets, Drew | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | The neural basis of stereognosis and its application to neuroprosthetics | Computational Neuroscience | Marlene Cohen |
| Sheikh, Sofia | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Causes and consequences of differential gene regulation in the development of alternate phenotypes | Ecology and Evolution | Marcus Kronforst |
| Sides, Elizabeth | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Integrative Biology | Callum Ross | |
| Smith, Bryton | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Evolutionary Biology | Fabiany Herrera Toloso | |
| Sodicoff, Joshua | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | The genetic mechanism underlying cross-acclimation in autotrophs | Genetics, Genomics, and Systems Biology | David Pincus and Seppe Kuehn |
| Stanfield, Emma | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Host-microbiome interactions in canopy kelps | Ecology and Evolution | Catherine Pfister |
| Sullivan, Sean | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Microbiome ecology | Microbiology | Alice Cheng |
| Tanda, Madeleine | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Functional diversity and ecosystem functioning in coastal habitats | Ecology and Evolution | Tim Wooton |
| Tarampoulous, Isaak | American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship | Mapping the effect of Hh signaling | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Ivan Moskowitz and Patrick La Riviere |
| Tijerina, Jenna | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Retinal circuitry of Octopus bimaculoides | Neurobiology | Clifton Ragsdale and Wei Wei |
| Wen, Tzu-Chieh Michael | American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship | Transcriptional dynamics of cell fate restriction | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Victoria Prince and Andrew Gillis |
| Wright, Nathaniel | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | The role of BRWD1 to establish epigenetic states for germinal center initiation, maintenance, and exit | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - MD/PhD Biophysical Sciences | Marcus Clark |
| Woo, Elizabeth | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Leveraging enhanced phenotyping and causal inference approaches to investigate the effect of maternal medication exposures on child outcomes | Genetics, Genomics and Systems Biology | Yoav Gilad |
| Yaeger, William | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Ecology and Evolution | Julia Kreiner | |
| Zack, Hartrich | NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program | Ecomorphology of Carnivoran forelimbs | Evolutionary Biology | Kenneth Angielczyk |
| Zelko, Michael | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Determining the role of the long non-coding RNA HOTTIP in regulation of the HOXA gene cluster | Cell and Molecular Biology | Alexander Ruthenburg |
| Zhang, Ruiling (Renee) | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Uncovering DIP-α signaling pathways underlying circuit assembly | Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology | Robert Carrillo |
| Ziolkowski, Leah | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Defining novel functions of ATF4 in early stages of pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis | Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition | Kay Macleod |
| Zhu, Ou | Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award | Neuronal encoding of rapid categorical decisions across primate oculomotor networks | Interdisciplinary Scientist Training Program - Computational Neuroscience | David Freedman |