Ela Rockafellow and Colin Yancey were among 22 current students and recent alumni of the University of Maryland to receive prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Fourteen of these recipients were from the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS).
Rockafellow, a senior physics major and co-president of the UMD chapter of the Society of Physics Students, received a Goldwater Scholarship last year. Yancey, who graduated in 2021 with degrees in physics and biological sciences, is now a chemical and biomolecular engineering doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University.
CMNS graduate student fellowship recipients:
- Joshua Davis, computer science graduate student
- Ashley Hanna, geology graduate student
- Katya Leidig, astronomy graduate student
- James Mullen, computer science graduate student
- Joel Rajakumar, computer science graduate student
- Max Springer, applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation graduate student
CMNS undergraduate student fellowship recipients:
- Steven Jin, mathematics major
- Naveen Raman, computer science and mathematics double major
- Ela Rockafellow, physics major
- Abigail Svoysky, biochemistry, biological sciences, and Russian language and literature triple-degree student
CMNS alumni fellowship recipients:
- Ethan Cheng (BS. ’21, biological sciences; B.S. ’21, computer science)
- Brandon Johnston (B.S. ’21, chemistry)
- Savannah Speir (B.S. ’18, biological sciences)
- Colin Yancey (B.S. ’21, physics; B.S. ’21, biological sciences)
NSF fellows receive three years of support, including a $34,000 annual stipend, a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees and access to opportunities for professional development available.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions.
Since 1952, NSF has funded more than 60,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants. At least 42 fellows have gone on to become Nobel laureates and more than 450 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.