Three Environmental Engineering Ph.D. Students Win Prestigious Fellowships

Liliana Hernandez was awarded an NSF Graduate Fellowship.  Lili is a first year PhD student in Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University working under the mentorship of Professor Aaron Packman. She graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez with a bachelor degree in Civil Engineering in December 2014.

The 2016 NSF Graduate Fellowship Program received 17,000 applications ad made 2,000 award offers.  Liliana’s current research aims to obtain high resolution, long-time series data to develop hydrological models for the prediction of stormwater runoff reduction in multifunctional green spaces around cities.  She will monitor various urban green spaces, such as the Indian Boundary Prairies, urban food production facilities and green roofs in the City of Chicago.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and Doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. The fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees.

Learn more about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

PhD. student Carolyn Wilke, a former recipient of an NSF Graduate Fellowship, was selected to be the 2016-2017 Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellow.  The fellowships are named for Dr. John N. Nicholson, a physician who practiced in the Chicago area for more than 50 years.  A leader in the Greek-American community, Dr. Nicholson established an endowment at Northwestern University to support academically superior and highly motivated graduate students in selected fields.  Carolyn is studying the ecotoxicological effects of nano-silver and nano-titanium dioxide mixtures and is working jointly in the labs of Professors Kimberly Gray and Jean-Francois Gaillard 

The Dr. John N. Nicholson Fellowship provides full tuition payment and a stipend for 9 months at the same rate as a University Fellowship.  For more information.

Ph.D. student Sara Thomas has been selected to receive the Chateaubriand Fellowship in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Health.  The Fellowship is for doctoral students and seeks to promote or reinforce collaborations, partnerships or joint projects between French and American research teams.  This fellowship will allow Sara to work in the Biology of Metals team within the Biosciences and Biotechnology Institute of Grenoble.  She will perform x-ray absorption experiments using the CRG-FAME beamline located at the ESRF and operated by the Institut Néel to further develop her ideas on the biouptake of mercury.

For more information


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