Research Excellence: Sixteen Aggies Honored in NSF Grad Research Fellow Search

Sixteen Utah State University scholars are honorees of the prestigious 2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship search. The Aggies, nine of which were named fellows and seven who received honorable mention, were among nearly 2,000 students selected from more than 13,000 applicants nationwide.

USU’s 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellows are graduating seniors Jonathan Mousley ’22 (Mathematics & Statistics) and Manuel Santana ’22 (Mathematics & Statistics), along with USU graduate student Courtney Check (Wildland Resources) and recent USU graduates Morgan Hughes ’15 (Wildland Resources), Andrew Kjar ’21 (Biological Engineering), Alexandra Lish ’20 (Chemistry & Biochemistry) and (Biology), Megi Rexhepaj ’12 (Chemistry & Biochemistry), Caleb Thomson ’20 (Biological Engineering) and Andrew “A.J.” Walters ’20 (Biological Engineering).

USU alum and graduate student Matthew Cook ’20 (Human Development and Family Studies), as well as recent USU graduates Jesse Wheeler ’20 (Mathematics & Statistics) and David Williamson ’18 (Chemistry & Biochemistry), along with USU graduate students Emily Burgess (Biology), Elana Feldman (Watershed Sciences), Maria Stahl (Wildland Resources) and Jack Van Allsburg (Psychology), received honorable mention.

“NSF Graduate Research Fellowships are the nation’s most prestigious graduate awards in science and engineering,” says USU President Noelle E. Cockett. “We applaud the accomplishments of these young researchers. Their NSF recognition is a testament to the outstanding quality of USU’s academic and research programs, as well as the high caliber of our students and faculty.”

Such efforts led USU's recent designation as Carnegie R1, the highest level for research institutions in the U.S.

The fellowship program provides up to three years of support for each awardee’s graduate education, including a $34,000 annual stipend, along with a yearly $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees, as well as the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. or foreign institution of graduate education they choose.

Courtney Check (Fellow), Ecology, Utah State University

Check is pursuing a master’s degree in ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources, with faculty mentor Tal Avgar. The Virginia native, who completed a bachelor’s degree in biology at the College of William and Mary, is studying large ungulate movement at both the individual and population level in central Utah. As an undergrad, Check completed an honors thesis on the microhabitat selection and annual movement of American and Fowler’s toads, and contributed to a study examining how threats to endangered species have changed over time. Before entering USU, she spent a year as a field technician, studying cottontails, owls, sage-grouse, woodpeckers and grassland birds.

Morgan J. Hughes ’15 (Fellow), Ecology, University of Florida

A Quinney College of Natural Resources alumna, Hughes was the college’s valedictorian in 2015 and was selected by her peers to deliver the university’s valedictory address. The wildlife science major placed first, that same year, in the International Society of Range Management’s Undergraduate Exam, besting competitors from throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Following graduation from USU, Hughes served in the Peace Corps in Peru. She completed a master’s degree at the University of Florida, where she’s now working toward a doctorate. In between those degree programs, Hughes returned to Peru to work in the country’s national parks service and worked as a research coordinator at a biological station in Costa Rica. Her research focuses on bat movements and understudied ecosystems.

Andrew Kjar ’21 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

USU alum Kjar was an active Aggie researcher during his undergrad career. The 2020 Goldwater Scholar and Honors student pursued 3D fabrication for neural tissue engineering, studied potential implant materials and worked to formulate a novel drug delivery system for treatment of cytomegalovirus infection. The latter project was inspired by a young patient with the congenital infection Kjar met while spending two years in the United Kingdom. Kjar wanted to do something to help people struggling with these types of illnesses, which fueled his interest in biological engineering. The Kearns, Utah native was the College of Engineering’s 2021 Scholar of the Year and was named USU’s 2021 Scholar of the Year at the prestigious Robins Awards. Now a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University, Kjar is developing engineering models of human brain disease.

Alexandra Lish ’20 (Fellow), Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School

While earning bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and biology at USU, Lish served as a science writing tutor and Undergraduate Teaching Fellow, while pursuing a busy research schedule. Named the College of Science’s 2020 Peak Prize Undergraduate Researcher of the Year, the Las Vegas native hit the ground running with research from her freshman year on, working on projects ranging from pest resistance in cowpeas to synthesis of materials for solar cells. As a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates summer intern at Scripps Research, Lish studied the genetics of autism, which led to published papers and professional presentations. Currently, Lish is a student in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program at Harvard Medical School, where she is studying blood-brain barrier dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease using an iPSC-derived BBB model.

Jonathan Mousley ’22 (Fellow), Mathematics, destination to be determined

As the 2021-22 Science Senator, Mousley has spent much of his tenure encouraging fellow undergrads to get involved in research, as well as advocating for better compensation for teaching assistants and promoting a peer mentorship program to help young undergrads — especially first-generation college students. The Undergraduate Research Fellow and Honors student studies spectral methods for optimal graph layouts and labelings of directed graphs with faculty mentors David Brown and LeRoy Beasley — work that’s yielded three papers. The Riverton, Utah native was selected for a NSF-REU summer internship at the University of Michigan-Dearborn in mathematical analysis and applications, as well as a series of geometry processing research projects at MIT’s Summer Geometry Institute. Mousley is currently considering several graduate programs, with a goal of working toward a doctorate in mathematics.

Megi Rexhepaj ’12 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, University of Washington School of Medicine

While earning a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at USU, Rexhepaj was an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow for Principles of Genetics and a supplemental instructor for organic chemistry and biology courses, as well as an active member of the USU Chem Club. With faculty mentor Sean Johnson, Rexhepaj conducted research on mutagenesis of the Mtr4 arch domain, and received a USU Center for Integrated Biosystems undergraduate research award to support this project. Following graduation, Rexhepaj served USU as a research assistant and lab manager, and also returned to campus in 2015, to mentor at-risk teens from California visiting Utah State as part of a two-week chemistry summer camp. At the University of Washington School of Medicine, Rexhepaj is working toward a doctorate in biochemistry. She is an author on a recent peer-reviewed paper describing treatment for patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Manuel Santana ’22 (Fellow), Mathematics, California Institute of Technology

A 2021 Goldwater Scholar, Santana, who is completing a bachelor’s degree in computational mathematics with a minor in computer science, has been active in research. The West Valley City, Utah native studies graph and network theory and has participated in NSF-REU summer internships at Michigan State University and Emory University. Eager to share his experiences, Santana, who served as vice president for undergraduate research involvement for the student-led Science Council, has organized innovative “Rapid Fire Research” student presentation opportunities to encourage Aggies throughout campus to share their research ideas. Named the College of Science’s 2022 Peak Prize Undergraduate Researcher of the Year, Santana heads to Caltech, where he plans to pursue a doctoral degree in applied and computational mathematics, in preparation for a university teaching and research career.

Caleb Thomson ’20 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah

A valedictorian at Brigham City, Utah’s Box Elder High School, Thomson entered USU on a Presidential Scholarship. The A-Pin recipient was active in organizing Intermountain Biological Engineering Conferences and served as president and industry head for USU’s student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society. Thomson describes biological engineering as a way of using knowledge of biology and the problem-solving skills of engineering to design solutions to challenges in varied areas, ranging from medicine to the environment. With USU faculty mentor Keith Roper, he used computational models to better understand electron plasmonic activity, which he presented at biological engineering conferences and USU’s Hansen Life Sciences Retreat. At the University of Utah, Thomson is applying machine learning to neural engineering and neural interfaces. A graduate assistant in the U’s NeuroRobotics Lab, he is using artificial neural networks to improve prosthetic and exoskeletal control.

A.J. Walters ‘20 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Rice University

An ambitious biotechnology project Walters undertook at Utah’s Stansbury High School — attempting to produce a glowing zebrafish — flopped. But it sparked Walters’ interest in biological engineering, biology and chemistry that led the self-described “farm kid” to Utah State. An Honors student, Walters received an honorable mention from the Goldwater Foundation and pursued multiple projects as both an Undergraduate Research Fellow and an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow. Currently a joint Ph.D. student in Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering and at UTHealth McGovern Medical School of Pediatric Surgery, Walters is developing translational synthetic biology tools for cell and cell-derived therapies, using human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells and extracellular vesicles/exosomes. Still inspired by the biology of nature, he sees genetic manipulation of DNA and biological systems as a means to solve real-world problems in medicine, energy, agriculture, consumer products and space.

Emily Burgess (Honorable Mention), Ecology, Utah State University

An Oregon native, Burgess was valedictorian of Forest Grove High School’s Class of 2015, as well as a track and field standout. She earned a bachelor of science in biology from Grinnell College, where she pursued research interests in sustainability and climate change science, with emphasis on climate change adaptation and plant/mutualist interactions. Following employment as a lab technician focused on soil microbial ecology at Michigan State University, Burgess entered USU as a doctoral student in Biology, working with faculty mentor Robert Schaeffer. A trainee in USU’s NSF-funded Climate Adaptation Science program, Burgess is investigating plant/insect/microbe interactions and how these interactions could be used to improve agricultural sustainability.

Matthew L. Cook ’20 (Honorable Mention), Social Sciences, Utah State University

Cook earned a bachelor of science degree in human development and family studies, with a minor in Japanese, from USU in 2020. Continuing his studies in USU’s HDFS Department, Cook is currently a master’s student who will start a Ph.D. program this fall. He is a 2021 recipient of the department’s Edna Baker Hatch Endowment Scholarship. Cook is studying executive functioning and brain activation differences between bilingual and monolingual preschool-aged children, using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in the prefrontal cortex of study participants. His research aims to determine any differences in executive functioning skills of children in the bilingual and monolingual groups, and if being bilingual provides an advantage.

Elana Feldman (Honorable Mention), Watershed Sciences, Utah State University

A master’s student advised by Watershed Sciences faculty member Karin Kettenring in USU’s Wetland Ecology and Restoration Lab, Feldman conducts research on restoration of wetland communities. Her work focuses on the drivers that lead to biotic resistance across varied community types. The Massachusetts North Shore native graduated from Vermont’s Middlebury College, where she earned a joint bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and biology. Following graduation, Feldman served two terms with AmeriCorps, first as a habitat steward for Vermont’s Battenkill Watershed Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area, and subsequently as the land stewardship coordinator for the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Her work in both capacities focused on invasive plant removal and native habitat restoration, inspiring her pursuit of graduate studies.

Maria Stahl (Honorable Mention), Ecology, Utah State University

A Quinney Doctoral Fellow, Stahl is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in ecology in USU’s Department of Wildland Resources. In the lab of faculty mentor Kari Veblen, Stahl is part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-funded project exploring the compatibility of Criollo cattle, a heritage breed, with Colorado Plateau landscapes. A 2020 graduate of Princeton University, Stahl earned a bachelor’s degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. As an undergraduate Princeton Environmental Institute intern, she traveled to Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park to study the role of fire in wildlife recovery. For her senior thesis, Stahl conducted vegetation surveys at 12 sites in the park, where she assessed how herbivores’ grazing behavior was affected by tracts of land that had been burned. She presented her research at the Student Conference on Conservation Science at the American Museum of Natural History.

Jack Van Allsburg (Honorable Mention), Psychology, Utah State University

A doctoral student in the USU Department in the Brain and Cognition Ph.D. specialization program, Allsburg’s research interests include animal learning and decision-making. Specifically, he is studying how the value of information changes over time. Allsburg earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English from Calvin University. During his undergrad years, the Grand Rapids, Michigan native served as a research assistant in the Calvin University Center for Social Research and as editor-in-chief of the university’s Dialogue creative journal.

Jesse Wheeler (Honorable Mention), Statistics, University of Michigan

Wheeler, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from Utah State, was the 2020 College of Science valedictorian. Active in undergraduate research, Wheeler received an URCO grant to creating a method for estimating snow water equivalence, a useful tool for structural engineers and hydrologists. His efforts contributed to the National Snow Load Project, an initiative to ensure safety in residential, commercial and public building construction in the U.S. Wheeler also served as president of the USU Data Sciences Club. The Roosevelt, Utah native is currently a doctoral student in statistics at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on neural interfaces.

David Williamson ’18 (Honorable Mention), Chemistry, University of Utah

Williamson earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from USU in 2018, after completing an associate’s degree in biochemistry from Brigham Young University-Idaho in 2015. During his undergraduate years, he served as a volunteer tutor and helped to coordinate campus blood drives. Williamson’s undergraduate research efforts included study of nitrogen fixation. Prior to entering graduate school, he was employed as an analytical chemist and lab manager for technology companies. Currently a doctoral student in analytical chemistry at the University of Utah, Williamson’s research focuses on ion mobility and mass spectrometry, with specific interest in glycomics, especially human milk oligosaccharides.

This year’s USU honorees make 78 Aggies who have received fellowships and 65 USU students or alumni who have received honorable mentions since 1999.

According to the NSF website, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program helps to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.