Congratulations to the 2025 NSF GRFP Fellows!

I will be discovering and inventing new protein catalysts—catalysts that are cheaper, more efficient, and more accessible than ever before. These novel, nifty, chemical machines will make plastic recycling profitable, personalized medicine readily accessible, and make specialty chemicals easier to create.

This NSF Fellowship will support my research on hydrogel materials for biomedical implants. I am developing long-lasting hydrogel coatings for next-generation brain-computer interfaces, with the goal of reducing the body's immune response to these devices. By mitigating this reaction, the coatings aim to preserve surrounding tissue health and maintain device performance long-term.

I design and analyze mathematical models to study stem cell dynamics—how do stem cells produce a constant supply of new cells for our tissues while also maintaining their own populations? To answer this question, I collaborate with the Gagnon lab in the biology department, who use CRISPR gene editing to track the populations of stem cells that produce sperm in zebrafish. By connecting my models with their experimental data, I evaluate different hypotheses about stem cell behavior to increase our understanding of how aging impacts tissue health.

I've been doing research at the U using high-performance computing to study the electronic properties of organic materials, focusing on improving the efficiency of polymer solar cells. With the NSF-GRFP, I will be starting a Ph.D. program at UCLA, continuing to study computational material science in their Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program. My broad goal is to develop nanomaterials for renewable energy applications.

I will be investigating the impact of prosthetic devices on the biomechanics and mobility of individuals with lower-limb amputations. These devices provide powered assistance, which can enhance gait mechanics, increase efficiency and improve overall comfort when walking.

Broadly, this research will explore the dynamic interactions between resident immune cells of the CNS and their local environmental niches during early postnatal development. Specifically, this study will investigate how niche-specific cues shape the specification of resident CNS immune cell populations and, in turn, how these cells influence the development of their local microenvironments.