From Five Stony Brook Students Win Prestigious NSF-GRFP Fellowships on Stony Brook University News, April 9, 2020.
A SoMAS Five Stony Brook students have been awarded prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships (NSF GRFP) by the National Science Foundation. Another six SBU students earned Honorable Mentions.
This nationally competitive award provides successful applicants in NSF-supported STEM disciplines with three years of funding for graduate school.
Stony Brook uses a collaborative advising model that was supported by the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). David Rubenstein, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, led a team that included Associate Professor of Biochemistry Benjamin Martin, OVPR Proposal Development Specialist Sheri Clark, and Assistant Professor Matthew Reuter, who is affiliated with both Applied Mathematics and Statistics and the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. Stony Brook applicants were also fortunate to have access to resources at the SUNY level, which were developed by Susan Brennan, Professor of Psychology.
Students honored with fellowships are, in alphabetical order, Fatoumata Ceesay, PhD Student, Sociology; Kiran Eiden, Undergraduate, Physics and Astronomy; Audrey Farrell, Undergraduate, Chemistry; Mateo Mezic, Master’s Student, Marine and Atmospheric Sciences; and Tori Pena, PhD Student, Cognitive Science (Cognitive Psychology).
“This award advances the careers of our most promising STEM students and provides them with the freedom to pursue exciting discoveries,” said Jen Green, External Scholarships and Fellowships Advisor. “I was humbled by the talent and energy displayed by this cohort.”
The NSF GRFP was established in 1952 to help develop and boost diversity of the country’s science and engineering research workforce by supporting graduate students who pursue research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in NSF-support STEM disciplines.
Mateo Mezic
Hometown: New York, New York
Department: School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Advisor : Dr. Malcolm Bowman
Mateo’s research focuses on the use of gates that can prevent flood waters from inundating coastal communities during storm events are known as storm surge barriers. These barriers have the capacity to protect people and their financial interests from flood damages. Mezic plans to develop a more comprehensive model to predict the costs and benefits associated with a storm surge barrier system in Long Island, NY.
Mezic was also a Fulbright semifinalist.
