UB students receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

UB doctoral student Margaret Azu and May graduate Vasilisa Ignatova have received the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award.

Launched in 1952, the GRFP represents the oldest continuous investment in the nation’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce. As one of the most competitive scholastic programs in the U.S., it recruits high-potential, early-career scientists and engineers, and supports their graduate research training.

“I am honored to receive the NSF GRFP,” says Azu, a PhD student in clinical psychology. “The support provided by this award will allow me to develop my own program of research that will inform my work during the rest of my time in graduate school and beyond.”

Azu received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Amherst College. She then worked as a research fellow studying social processing in autism at the Yale Child Study Center. Her current research at UB centers on how psychophysiology, parent-child relationships and peer interactions together influence children’s social and emotional development.

Ignatova graduated from UB this spring with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and will pursue a PhD in robotics at Cornell University. Her research focuses on bio-inspired, small-scale robots, with particular interests in tactile communication, swarm intelligence and origami-inspired mechanisms.

“I’m sincerely grateful to be an NSF GRFP recipient,” Ignatova says. “Being a fellow will provide me with greater independence in selecting and pursuing research projects that I am passionate about as I begin my PhD this fall.”

Six UB students received honorable mentions:

• Adwoa Ampiah-Bonney is pursuing a PhD in cognitive psychology, studying the effect of cultural context on music perception and production.
• Susanna Keilig is a PhD candidate using acoustic telemetry analyses and habitat suitability modeling to aid conservation efforts of lake trout in Lake Erie.
• Ashley Mcdougall is a second-year biochemistry PhD student studying DNA replication and repair.
• Jordan Scalia is pursuing a PhD in materials chemistry. Her research focuses on synthesizing high entropic materials to fundamentally understand atomic distortion and movement primarily through X-ray characterization techniques.
• Owen Szeglowski graduated from UB this spring with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and will pursue his PhD in inorganic chemistry at Harvard University this fall. He conducted research developing Poly porphyrin catalysts for small molecular activation.
• Hosam Yousef is pursuing a PhD in the sound and vibration lab after earning a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from UB. His research revolves around using metamaterials to mitigate turbulence on an aircraft wing leading to lower fuel consumption.