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15 Science Terps Awarded 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

/ 14 April 2025 /

*Story updated June 17, 2025, to reflect additional awardees.

Fourteen current students and recent alums of the University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) received prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships, which recognize outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

This year’s awardees are:

  • Dean Calhoun, Ph.D. student in atmospheric and oceanic science
  • Zora Che, Ph.D. student in computer science
  • Yuran Ding, Ph.D. student in computer science
  • Ethan Heldtman (B.S. '24, atmospheric and oceanic science)
  • Jade LeSchack (B.S. '25, physics; B.S. '25, mathematics), University of Southern California
  • George Li (B.S. ’24, mathematics; B.S. ’24, computer science), Carnegie Mellon University
  • Maria Nikolaitchik (B.S. '24, atmospheric and oceanic science; B.S. '24, mathematics)
  • Tesia Shi (B.S. ’23, biological sciences; B.S. ’23, psychology)
  • Jonathan Starfeldt, Ph.D. student in atmospheric and oceanic science
  • Logan Stevens (B.S. '23, computer science, B.A. '23, theater), Ph.D. student in computer science at UMD
  • Elaine Taylor (B.S. '23, physics and astronomy), Stanford University
  • Jeffrey Wack (B.S. '22, physics; B.S. '22, mathematics), Caltech
  • Adam Yang, computer science major
  • Grant Yang (B.S. ’23, biological sciences), Harvard University
  • Mary Yilma (B.S. ’21, mathematics; B.S. ’21, economics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the quality, vitality, and strength of the United States' scientific and engineering workforce. The five-year fellowships provide three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $37,000.

Since 1952, NSF has funded over 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.

About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences

The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 10,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and nine interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $250 million.