ECE Student Named NSF Research Fellow

Two current graduate students with NC State undergraduate degrees received fellowships – including Michael David McKnight, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student and member of the iBionics Lab, 2012 graduate in biomedical engineering, and former Park Scholar.

The National Science Foundation has awarded its prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship to 17 students who completed or will soon complete their undergraduate degrees at NC State. An additional 21 students received honorable mention in the annual competition.

The program is the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, recognizing outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited institutions in the United States. Past fellows include numerous Nobel Prize winners, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Google founder Sergey Brin and “Freakonomics” co-author Steven Levitt.

Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $32,000 along with a $12,000 allowance for tuition and fees, opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose. Two thousand fellowships are awarded each year.

Two current graduate students with NC State undergraduate degrees received fellowships – including Michael David McKnight, an electrical engineering Ph.D. student and member of the iBionics Lab, 2012 graduate in biomedical engineering, and former Park Scholar.

Fellowships were also awarded to 4 current seniors, 11 NC State graduates who are now in or proposing to enter graduate programs elsewhere, and 8 new graduate students soon to start their degree programs at NC State.

Credit: Based on the NCSU Bulletin story “17 Named NSF Research Fellows.”