Six Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Six current students and recent alumni of the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science received prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The awardees include:

• Ethan Cheng (B.S. ’21, biological sciences; B.S. ’21, computer science)
• Joshua Davis, computer science graduate student (advisor: 
• Abhinav Bhatele)
• James Mullen, computer science graduate student (advisors: Aniket Bera, Ming Lin and Dinesh Manocha)
• Joel Rajakumar, computer science graduate student (advisor: Yi-Kai Liu)
• Naveen Raman, computer science and mathematics double major
• Max Springer, applied mathematics & statistics, and scientific computation graduate student (advisory: Mohammad Hajiaghayi)

NSF fellows receive three years of support, including a $34,000 annual stipend, a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees and access to opportunities for professional development available.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program 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 U.S. institutions.

Since 1952, NSF has funded more than 60,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants. At least 42 fellows have gone on to become Nobel laureates and more than 450 have become members of the National Academy of Sciences.