First-year student in the Vollum Institute Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP), Kimberley Engeln, and second-year student in the School of Medicine Program in Molecular and Cellular Bioscience (PMCB), Janelle Tobias, received 2020 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. Hannah Collins and Jennifer Jahncke, both second-year students in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, received honorable mentions.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports exceptionally promising individuals early in their graduate training in science, technology, education, or mathematics. Engeln has completed rotations in the laboratories of Marina Wolf (Department of Behavioral Neuroscience) and John Williams (Vollum Institute); she is currently rotating in the laboratory of Skyler Jackman (Vollum Institute). Janelle Tobias is mentored by James Frank (Vollum Institute/Chemical Physiology & Biochemistry). Hannah Collins is co-mentored by Ben Emery (Jungers Center) and Kelly Monk (Vollum Institute), and Jennifer Jahncke is mentored by Kevin Wright (Vollum Institute).
Makayla Freitas, first-year student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, was also recognized with an honorable mention from the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program. Through its Fellowship Program — which is administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine — the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by supporting Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral trainees. Freitas has completed rotations in the laboratories of Eric Gouaux and John Williams in the Vollum Institute. She is currently rotating in the laboratory of Swetha Murthy (Vollum Institute).