This year, amid an exceptionally competitive environment, 21 Caltech undergraduate students and 15 current and prospective graduate candidates have been granted graduate research fellowships by the National Science Foundation (NSF). These fellowships, which span three years, support advanced studies “to help ensure the quality, vitality, and strength of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States,” as stated on the NSF website.
“The NSF graduate research fellowship represents one of the nation’s most esteemed fellowships for early-career engineers and scientists. I commend all the Caltech scholars who have been awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year—it is a significant recognition of their research potential,” noted David Chan, Dean of Graduate Studies and the Harold and Violet Alvarez Professor of Biology. “This year’s competition was notably fierce, particularly because the number of fellowships has declined by 50 percent, reflecting a 15-year low in recipients. These fellowships provide our students with greater autonomy and adaptability to pursue innovative and ambitious research endeavors since they rely less on their thesis advisor’s funding, which might be confined to particular projects.”
Caltech students and alumni who received fellowships in 2025 include 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, Sangwon 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 recognized as fellowship recipients in 2025 include 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), Andrew Yang (applied physics), and Jason Zhang (chemical engineering).
Details regarding the application process for the graduate research fellowship can be accessed at fasa.caltech.edu.