2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Awarded

May 1, 2020

Four CCS students receive prestigious NSF Fellowship to help them pursue graduate studies and become leaders in the scientific community

Every year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) offers fellowships to “[recognize] and [support] outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.” The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is highly competitive and is offered to graduating seniors or beginning graduate students. Recipients receive an annual stipend in addition to a cost of education allowance as well as numerous opportunities for international research and professional development.  

This year, 25 UCSB students were awarded GRFP Fellowships, including 8 undergraduate awardees. Four of the undergraduates are CCS students, Ethan Epperly (CCS Math and CCS Computing ‘20), Colin Unger (CCS Computing ‘20), Lia Yeh (CCS Physics and CCS Computing ‘20), and Yunkai Zhang (CCS Math and CCS Computing ‘20). 

While all students are honored to receive this award, Lia will instead be attending the University of Oxford on a Clarendon Fellowship and Ethan is instead in the process of accepting a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF).

The GRFP Fellowship will support Colin, Yunkai, and other UCSB students as they pursue their graduate studies and help them to become leaders in scientific innovation and teaching. In addition, they will join the larger community of GRFP alumni, where more than 450 Fellows have become members of the National Academy of Sciences and 42 are Nobel Laureates.