Announcing the 2025-2026 Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship Awards

The Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards granted by Rackham Graduate School. Doctoral candidates who expect to graduate within six years since beginning their degrees are eligible to apply, and the strength and quality of their dissertation abstract, publications and presentations, and recommendations are all taken into consideration when granting this award. Read the abstracts of the awardees.

Congratulations to all of this year’s predoctoral fellows:

Biological and Health Sciences

• Philip Barrison, Health Infrastructures and Learning Systems
• Adrian Boltz, Movement Science
• Hannah Carter, Microbiology and Immunology
• Kristofer Castro, Environment and Sustainability
• Monica Chanda, Cancer Biology
• Congyi Dai, Environment and Sustainability
• Angelo Guilatco, Cancer Biology
• Yi Hsiao, Bioinformatics
• Hyunwoo Jang, Neuroscience
• Matheus Januario Lopes de Sousa, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Soubhagyalaxmi Jema, Program in Biomedical Sciences (Barbour Scholar)
• Guoxuan Ma, Biostatistics
• Rebecca Malcore, Genetics and Genomics
• Brandon McClellan, Immunology
• Alexander Meyer, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Niloufar Pouyan, Neuroscience (Barbour Scholar)
• Charlotte Probst, Environment and Sustainability
• Keerthikka Ravi, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
• Claire Shudde, Pharmacology
• Stephanie Steltzer, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
• Natasha Stepanova, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Austin Ventura, Medicinal Chemistry
• Xiaotong Yang, Computational Neuroscience
• Leyao Zhang, Biostatistics
• Xingwu Zhou, Pharmaceutical Sciences

Physical Sciences and Engineering

• Nishkarsh Agarwal, Materials Science and Engineering
• Eva Albaghiti, Environmental Engineering
• Justin Berman, Physics
• Anne Blackwell, Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Anthony Chen, Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics
• Yingtian Chen, Astronomy
• Huai-Hsuan Chiu, Astronomy and Astrophysics
• Hyesun Chung, Industrial and Operations Engineering (Barbour Scholar)
• Madeline Clough, Chemistry
• Sanaa Elsayed, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Zachary Fritts, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Alejandro Garcia, Chemistry
• Lucas Gomes, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Kaila Jenkins, Applied Physics
• Ruya Karagulle, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Hyunsuk Kim, Mathematics
• Seokmu Kwon, Chemical Engineering
• Thanh Lai, Biophysics
• Xiao Li, Aerospace Engineering
• Jisoon Lim, Civil Engineering
• Zhenyu Ma, Environmental Engineering
• Felipe Maia Polo, Statistics
• Firaol Midekssa, Biomedical Engineering
• Jeronimo Morales Toledo, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Hannah Myers, Design Science
• Neha Nagpal, Chemical Engineering
• Emily Nolan, Chemistry
• Urshita Pal, Mathematics
• Harsh Hemantkumar Patel, Chemical Engineering
• Dongjae Shin, Materials Science and Engineering
• Rachel Silcox, Mechanical Engineering
• Jingyu Song, Robotics
• Unique Subedi, Statistics
• Shiyu Sun, Mechanical Engineering (Barbour Scholar)
• Emily Thomas, Biomedical Engineering
• Mustafa Tobah, Materials Science and Engineering
• Jingying Wang, Computer Science and Engineering (Barbour Scholar)
• Hochul Woo, Macromolecular Science and Engineering
• Yuchen Wu, Macromolecular Science and Engineering
• Shihao Wu, Statistics
• Minghui Wu, Civil Engineering
• Yuhao Xian, Environmental Engineering
• Zirui Xu, Aerospace Engineering
• Diwen Xue, Computer Science and Engineering
• Mingze Yao, Mechanical Engineering
• Can Yaras, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Carissa Yim, Chemical Engineering
• Hongyu Zhou, Aerospace Engineering
• Yuan Zhu, Phsyics (Barbour Scholar)

Social and Behavioral Sciences

• Erina Baci, Anthropology
• Emma Banchoff, Sociology (Roblin Fellow)
• Karin Brown, Educational Studies
• Alex Burnett, History and Women’s and Gender Studies
• Sujin Cha, Political Science
• Siyi Chen, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Sarah Day Dayon, Educational Studies
• Reynolds Hahamovitch, History
• Matthew Hiller, Social Work and Anthropology
• Brittany Joyce, Ancient History
• Martin Macias Medellin, Political Science
• Irene Melani, Psychology
• Marcela Ortiz Guerrero, Educational Studies
• Valeria Ortiz Villalobos, Education and Psychology
• Morgan Perry, Health Services Organization and Policy
• Irene Routte, Social Work and Anthropology
• Yu Song, Business Administration
• Pavani Vissapragada, Health Services Organization and Policy (Roblin Fellow)
• Morgan Wofford, Information
• Anna Wood, Social Work and Sociology
• Liuyun Xu, Civil Engineering

Humanities and the Arts

• Chandrica Barua, English Language and Literature (Barbour Scholar)
• Azhar Dyussekenova, Slavic Languages and Literatures
• Jeremy Esquer, Composition
• Donghoon Lee, Romance Languages and Literatures
• Kyle Lindsey, American Culture
• Alice Mishkin, American Culture
• Jaideep Pandey, Comparative Literature
• Brittany Puller, Asian Languages and Literatures
• Grace Wilsey, Film, Television, and Media
• Asa Zhang, English Language and Literature

University of Michigan-Dearborn

• Zhengquan Li, Computer and Information Science
• Chengxin Zhang, Industrial and Systems Engineering