Five current and former students from the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering have been awarded the highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). The distinguished group includes two current graduate students and three recent alumni.
The NSF-GRFP is the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, offering significant financial and developmental support to students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines. The program recognizes individuals pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees who demonstrate the potential for high levels of success in their academic and professional careers.
This year, securing a fellowship was even more challenging due to federal budget cuts. The program saw a 25% reduction in awards, with only 1,500 fellowships granted nationwide compared to 2,000 last year.
Fellows receive a substantial three-year annual stipend of $37,000, along with up to five years of opportunities for international research and professional development.
The 2025 Fellows from Hopkins BME are:
- Daniel Antov is an incoming PhD student in Jordan Green’s Biomaterials and Drug Delivery Laboratory. Antov recently completed his undergraduate degree in biological engineering and business management at MIT.
- Zoe Hsieh, a 2025 graduate who earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Hopkins BME, will pursue a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania this fall. She plans to continue her immunoengineering research in the lab of Michael J. Mitchell, associate professor of bioengineering.
- Thomas Lu is an incoming PhD student who recently earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering, with minors in biomedical engineering, computer science, and math, from Virginia Tech.
- Benjamin Miller, a 2025 graduate of the Hopkins BME undergraduate program, will pursue a PhD at the University of Michigan starting this fall.
- Cassandra Parent, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and computer science from Johns Hopkins in 2022, is a PhD student at MIT and Harvard Medical School in the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program. Her research focuses on developing equitable machine learning models for underserved, chronic health conditions.