Four from MechSE among record number of NSF Graduate Research Fellows

A total of 52 students, including 30 graduate students and 22 undergraduates, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been offered Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF). An additional 26 students have been accorded Honorable Mention.

Four MechSE students were among those 52, with an additional two included on the Honorable Mention list:

Awardees

• Amelia Maria Korveziroska Honeyville
• Amar Koric
• Jason Robinson
• Jordan Westphal

Honorable Mention

• Aarav Shah
• Annika S. Srinivasan

Koric (BSME 2026) will begin his doctoral studies at Stanford University in the fall.  Korveziroska Honeyvill (BSME 2026) is a graduate student at Northwestern University.  Robinson is a PhD student in mechanical engineering, working on tendon biomechanics in professor Mariana Kersh's lab. Westphal (BSME 2026) will begin his doctoral studies at Notre Dame University in the fall, focusing on legged robot controls. 

Launched in 1952 shortly after Congress established NSF, the Graduate Research Fellowship program (GRFP) represents the nation's oldest continuous investment in the U.S. scientific workforce. The program recruits high-potential, early-career researchers and supports their graduate training in science, technology, social science, engineering, mathematics, and STEM education.

Awardees receive three years of support including a $37,000 annual stipend and a $16,000 cost-of-education allowance to defray the cost of tuition and fees. A total of 2,599 fellows were named from a pool of nearly 14,000 applicants.

“The GRF is the premier federal fellowship for graduate students in STEM, and Illinois has a long history of success with it," said Ken Vickery, assistant dean for fellowships in the Graduate College.  However, this year marks a milestone, for 52 is the highest number of awardees we’ve ever had—an institutional record. I congratulate all of this year’s awardees and Honorable Mentions for their success with this wonderful fellowship.”

“This year’s results are particularly impressive given that the solicitation was released on short notice and introduced major eligibility changes, including the exclusion of second‑year graduate students,” said Dana Johnson, director of external fellowships. “Despite a compressed timeline and heightened uncertainty, Illinois applicants rose to the challenge, producing exceptionally strong proposals.”

See the full list of awardees and Honorable Mention designees from the University of Illinois on the Graduate College website.