This year, in an especially tight competition, 21 Caltech undergraduates and 14 current and incoming graduate students have been awarded graduate research fellowships by the National Science Foundation (NSF). These three-year fellowships fund graduate study "to help ensure the quality, vitality, and strength of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States," according to the NSF website.
"The NSF graduate research fellowship is one of the nation's most prestigious fellowships for early-career scientists and engineers. I congratulate all the Caltech students who received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year—it is a strong endorsement of their research potential," says Dean of Graduate Studies David Chan, the Harold and Violet Alvarez Professor of Biology. "This year's competition was especially intense, given that the number of fellowships was reduced by 50 percent, marking a 15-year low in the number of recipients. These fellowships give our students more freedom and flexibility to explore bold and risky research ideas because they are less dependent on their thesis advisor's funding, which may be restricted to specific projects."
Caltech students and alumni awarded fellowships in 2025 are Sahithi Ankireddy, Yiyi Cai, Chu Xin Cheng, Jadelynn Dao, Lily DeBell (BS '24), Catherine Deng, Arushi Gupta, Calle Junker (BS '23), Nicole Lee, Miguel Liu-Schiaffini, Lana Lubecke, Thomas MacLean, Brayden Noh, Deepro Pasha, Krishna Pochana (BS '24), Juni Polansky, Joseph Sheeran, Michael Sowell, Avirath Sundaresan, Sophia Wu, and Luke Zhou.
Current and incoming Caltech graduate students named as fellowship recipients in 2025 are Kevin Alexander (chemistry), Curtis Althaus (chemistry), Stella Baldwin (geobiology), Richard Chen (computing and mathematical sciences), Emma Codianne (physics), Elena Dworak (environmental science and engineering), Luke Handley (astrophysics), Manuel Holguin (biochemistry and molecular biophysics), Cecilia Paranjothi (chemistry), Amelyn Phang (materials science), Tara Saxena (control and dynamical systems), Clara Seo (chemistry), Natan Spear (materials science), and Jason Zhang (chemical engineering).
Information on applying for the graduate research fellowship can be found at fasa.caltech.edu.