As sought-after fellowship and award announcements filter into universities around the country, the Purdue College of Engineering is seeing a strong showing among its students.

Because some award announcements are received on a rolling basis and others are routed through non-College channels, Purdue Engineering maintains a running list that is frequently updated and also offers an online form for submissions.

In its 2022 Award Offers and Honorable Mentions List, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) lists the names of 12 Boilermaker awardees, as well as five honorable mentions and two alumni recipients.

GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution. It is the country’s oldest fellowship program that directly supports graduate students in various STEM fields.

Current Purdue Engineering students who have received NSF fellowship offers:

• Antonio Alvarez Valdivia (ME graduate student)

• Hammad F. Khan (BME graduate student)

• Swagat Bhattacharyya (ECE undergraduate student)

• Allison N. Earnhardt (ME undergraduate student)

• Scott E. Kenning (ECE undergraduate student)

• Katherine E. Kerr (BME undergraduate student)

• Joseph Kirchhoff (AAE undergraduate student)

• Jacqueline R. Malayter (ECE graduate student)

• Hailey M. Szadowski (ABE undergraduate student)

• William B. Farlessyost (ABE graduate student)

• Orlando G. Rivera Gonzalez (ME graduate student)

• Brendan K. Ball (BME graduate student)

Purdue Engineering alumni who have received NSF fellowship offers:

• Juliet Heye (BMEBS ’18; now a PhD student in BME and bioengineering, University of Colorado Boulder)

• Katherine Kerr (BMEBS ’21; now a post-baccalaureate research assistant at the University of Pennsylvania)

Engineering students who have received Honorable Mentions:

• Nicholas C. Casetti (ChE undergraduate student)

• Alyssa T. McNarney (ChE undergraduate student)

• Trevor F.G. Teague (ChE undergraduate student)

• Alexander D. Plumadore (ME graduate student)

• Abhinav D. Ramkumar (ME graduate student)

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program (NDSEG) is administered through the Department of Defense. The competitive program awards fellowships to promising U.S. scientists who intend to pursue doctoral degrees in science and engineering disciplines relevant to the defense mission.

NDSEG fellowships last for three years and pay full tuition and all mandatory fees, a monthly stipend ($38,400 annually), a $5,000 travel budget during the fellow’s tenure for professional development, and up to $1,200 per year in health insurance.

Engineering students who received NDSEG fellowships:

• Abhinav Ramkumar (ME graduate student)

• Mitchell Donoughue (ME graduate student)

The Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship Program provides awardees with the tools required to pursue their STEM education and begin their careers in a prestigious civilian position with the Department of Defense.

SMART Scholars receive full tuition and education-related expenses, a stipend between $25,000-$38,000 per year depending on degree level, health insurance, a miscellaneous allowance of up to $1,000 per academic year, internships, mentors, and placement at a DoD facility upon degree completion.

Purdue Engineering SMART Scholarship recipient:

• Ethan Adams (ChE graduate student)

The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) is a statewide partnership among Purdue University, Indiana University, and the University of Notre Dame. Funding for its special Pre-doctoral Training Award in Translational Research provides an annual stipend, health insurance, partial tuition remission, and travel funds to attend the annual national meeting of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program in Washington, D.C. 

Awardees are mentored in research-intensive, multi-disciplinary settings toward the goal of developing careers in translational research with applications in human disease and health outcomes. The award lasts two years and is renewable at the end of the first year.

Purdue Engineering CTSI Predoctoral Training Award recipients:

• Alexis Hoerter (predoctoral research fellow under Elsje Piennar, assistant professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering)

• Claudia Benito Alston (predoctoral research fellow under Luis Solorio, assistant professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering)