Record number of UTSA students earn NSF fellowships
(April 10, 2017) -- Five students from The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will receive the 2017 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the largest number of UTSA students ever to receive the honor in one year.
The distinguished fellowship is awarded to 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. Three of the five UTSA students received the award while completing their undergraduate degrees at UTSA.
One of UTSA's recipients is Jasmine King, who graduates from UTSA in May with her bachelor's in biomedical engineering. The San Antonio native transferred to UTSA for the academic opportunities.
"Transferring to UTSA was the best career move I've made," said King. "The MARC-U*STAR program changed my life by introducing me to biomedical research. This has given me the most competitive edge for other research experiences while sharpening my professional skills."
King is developing a silk-based scaffold system to support pancreatic acinar, which could help fight pancreatitis. She'll build on her UTSA education this fall when she attends the joint UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco Graduate Program in Bioengineering.
"The NSF Fellowship is a huge honor and it's highly competitive," said Gail Taylor, assistant director of UTSA's Maximizing Access to Research Careers - Undergraduate Student Training for Academic Research (MARC U*STAR) and Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) programs. "It's a sign that UTSA is developing more and more as a top-tier research institution."
NSF Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 while their universities receive a $12,000 cost of education allowance to cover tuition and fees. They also receive international research opportunities, professional development opportunities and the freedom to conduct research on a topic of their choosing at the accredited U.S. institutions where they enroll.
Biology senior and MARC participant Madeline Cortez is another UTSA NSF Fellow.
"As a freshman, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my biology degree," said Cortez. "As soon as I joined a lab, I knew it was the place for me. I received both technical and professional training at UTSA."
Cortez is working alongside Floyd L. Wormley Jr. to create an anti-fungal vaccine that can protect healthy individuals and those who do not have fully functioning immune systems. After she graduates in May, the San Antonio native will pursue her doctoral degree at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in the Molecular Virology and Microbiology program.
Jason Giuliani is pursuing his Ph.D. in physics at UTSA after graduating with his bachelor's in 2016. MARC and RISE helped Giuliani develop his research in Carlos Monton's laboratory. He will continue that work, which consists of using electrochemistry and physical methods to create arrays of magnetic, multi-compositional nanowires and nanostructures, with help from the NSF Fellowship.
"This honor means everything to me," Giuliani said. "UTSA has played an instrumental role in making it a reality."
Other UTSA NSF Fellows include undergraduate biomedical engineering student Alisa Isaac and Christian Sheumaker, a UTSA graduate student in archaeology.
"We have some amazing students at UTSA. They're competitive at just about any school in the nation but they choose to come here," said Taylor. "What's unique about UTSA is the depth of training undergraduates receive in our labs. These students are getting the research experience usually not obtained at other universities until graduate school."
Taylor's tells other student researchers at UTSA, "Aim high because at UTSA you can reach it. You can get the research you need, touch the community and develop as a leader."
UTSA is ranked among the top 400 universities in the world and among the top 100 in the nation, according to Times Higher Education.
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Events
Students, faculty and staff are invited to join UTSA's delegation at the annual César E. Chávez March for Justice in downtown San Antonio. Free transportation will be provided from the Main and Downtown Campuses, and all university community participants will receive a complimentary commemorative t-shirt (while supplies last)
1310 Guadalupe Street, San Antonio, TexasJoin UTSA Libraries and Museums to learn more about the publishing discounts available for UTSA researchers.
Virtual Event (Zoom)PubMed is an essential database for anyone conducting biomedical or health-related research. This workshop will teach attendees how to effectively navigate this free resource and locate peer-reviewed articles using advanced search features, MeSH subject headings, and Boolean operators.
Virtual Event (Zoom)Join us for a hands-on workshop about the basics of copyright, both in education and as a researcher. We’ll dispel some common copyright myths, differences between copyright law and other intellectual property law, and teach you how to apply a Fair Use checklist to your scholarly work.
Virtual Event (Zoom)In this workshop, we will explore sentiment analysis, a method for identifying feelings in text, whether the tone is positive, negative, or neutral.
Group Spot B, John Peace LibraryThe Urban Bird Project at UTSA will discuss urban bird populations, conservation efforts, and how you can get involved.
JPL Assembly Room (4.04.22,) Main CampusLearn to use the simple but powerful features of EndNote®, a citation management tool. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography.
Virtual Event ( Zoom)
