Each year, the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) identifies and honors the country’s most promising young scientists and engineers. More than twelve thousand applicants propose a research project, which are then assessed based on not only their potential for academic success, but the broader impacts that research could have.
Only a thousand or so applications were selected this year, cut in half from previous cohorts, so for any research community a single GFRP winner is a mark of excellence and cause for celebration.
This year, the cause for celebration was Max Balitskiy.
As a NSF GRFP winner, Balitskiy will receive an annual stipend of $37,000 for the next three years. Awardees also receives $12,000 that goes directly to their home department to cover educational costs and support their career progression.
“I will be discovering and inventing new protein catalysts—catalysts that are cheaper, more efficient, and more accessible than ever before,” Balitskiy said These novel, nifty, chemical machines will make plastic recycling profitable, personalized medicine readily accessible, and make specialty chemicals easier to create.”