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Nine BE Students Receive NSF Research Fellowships

NSF

Nine students in the Department of Bioengineering (BE) have received fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Six of the students — Zakary Beach, Nicolette Driscoll, Lindsey Fernandez, Jessica Hsu, Jinsu Kim and Ryan Leaphart — are current doctoral students in Bioengineering who earned undergraduate degrees from other top BE programs. Three of the awardees — Lucy Chai, Jake Hsu and Karren Yang — are BE graduating seniors in the Class of 2017. Lucy will spend next year on a Churchill fellowship at Cambridge before starting her NSF fellowship, while Jake has an internship with Genentech‘s Manufacturing Sciences and Technology department, and Karren will attend MIT.

“We are extremely fortunate to attract the very best graduate students in the country,” says David F. Meaney, Solomon R. Pollack Professor and Chair of BE. “This is an external recognition of the high quality of our students across the board.”

The Graduate Research Fellowship Program of the National Science Foundation recognizes and supports 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. For the 2017 competition, the NSF received more than 13,000 applications.

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Bioengineering Student Receives Prestigious Soros Fellowship

Ivan Kuznetsov, bioengineering student
Ivan Kuznetsov


Ivan Kuznetsov, a dual-degree MD/PhD program in the Penn Department of Bioengineering, has received a prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. A first-generation American born in Ohio, Ivan is the son of parents who immigrated from Russia. He earned a BS in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University before enrolling at Penn last year.

Professor Brian Chow, PhD, who directs the lab in which Ivan works, speaks glowingly of him. “Ivan’s research in the design of de novo proteins for molecular imaging represents a fundamentally new approach to inventing tools for elucidating the physiology of targeted cells. It is completely unchartered territory for mammalian biology and bioengineering,”  Dr. Chow says. “What sets Ivan apart as a young scientist is his rare blend of exceptional skills in experimental biology and deep understanding of its mathematical and physical underpinnings. Few possess that blend at his age.”

Every year, the Soros Fellowships are awarded to 30 American students who are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. The field is highly competitive; this year there were almost 1,800 applicants. Ivan and his 29 colleagues will receive up to $90,000 for funding of their graduate educations.