nsf graduate research fellowship sample

NSF Fellowship

The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ( NSF GRFP ) is a great way to start a research career. I was a successful applicant in 2010. Below are some details about the program and some tips for applying. You will also find many examples of successful essays and you can even submit your own essays if you are willing to serve as inspiration for the next round of applicants.

Note, this advice was last updated in Sept 2021.

What is it?

The NSF GRFP provides $34,000 to the student and some money to your department for three years. You have the flexibility to defer for up to two years in case you have another source of funding (but you cannot defer to take a year off).

The basic requirements are:

1. US Citizen, US National, or permanent resident

2. Currently a graduating Senior or First/Second year graduate student

3. Graduate students may only apply in their first OR second year (NOT both) . I have some thoughts on which year to apply .

4. Going into science research (does not apply to medical school)

Check out the official requirements at the NSF GRFP website . Here is the more detailed NSF presentation on the requirements. The deadlines are usually the last week of October , but it is never too early to start.

Basic Outline of Application Process

You will need to write two essays:

Personal Statement, Relevant Background, and Future Goals (3 pages)

Graduate Research Statement (2 pages)

You will need to get at least three letters of reference

These essays will be reviewed on the criteria of Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.

And that's really it. The challenge is to sell yourself in 5 pages and to successful address the two criteria.

Tips for Getting Started

Read over the official NSF GRFP website , especially their tips .

Look through the NSF GRFP FAQ , with detailed answers here.

Here is a detailed website from Robin Walker . She has a very very thorough guide to the application .

Look at advice from past winners. There are lots of great advice out there, but in an interest to not overload you, here are my personal top choices. You can find more in my examples table at the bottom of the page.

Mallory Ladd - If you can follow her schedule, you should be more than prepared

Claire Bowen - Lots of advice interleaved with excerpts from successful essays

DJ Strouse - Applied under old system, but still great advice.

Blengineers - Fun video series of application tips

Read an example essay. I have posted all of my essays (and others) as well as my ratings sheets at the bottom of this page and organized into them into a table . Personally, I found this extremely useful and I have to give credit to two University of Wisconsin NSF GRFP winners who shared their essays with me, without which I was struggling on how to start the application.

Check out an old guide for reviewers .

For current discussions on the application process, check out this years NSF GRFP discussion at The GradCafe Forums . Some past years discussions include: 2020-2021 , 2019-2020 , 2018-2019 , 2017-2018 , 2016-2017 , 2015-2016 , 2014-2015 , 2013-2014 , 2012-2013 , 2011-2012 , and 2010-2011 .

General Advice

Every essay should address both Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.

Each essay needs explicit headers of Intellectual Merit / Broader Impacts .

NSF GRFP funds the person, not the project. The most important choice you make is designating the primary field (Chemistry vs Physics & Astronomy, etc). The subfield is less important. If you are an undergrad doing research, I would strongly suggest to make your research proposal related to what you are currently researching as long as: 1. you are going to apply to programs in the same primary field and 2. there is at least a small chance (even if only a few percent) that you could do something related to your proposal in graduate school. NSF will not force you to follow through with the research; instead they just want to see that you can actually write a proposal. I personally wrote about my undergraduate research. It was in physics and I only applied to physics graduate schools (so same primary field), but I was not sure I wanted to continue with it in graduate school, and in fact it ended up being impossible since I did not get into any graduate schools with anyone doing research in my proposed subfield.

Write for a general science audience and assume the reviewer is in your primary field, but not your subfield. This is NSF's tentative review panels , you can see that the only guarantee is that the reviewer is in your primary field.

Ask for letters of reference early and gently remind your writers of the deadline. Get a diverse set of letter writers. I had my current adviser (who was doing research similar to what I proposed), a past research adviser, and my boss at a tutoring center. Therefore, I had two letters addressing my intellectual merit, while one letter addressed broader impacts.

Ask for help. Your current university probably has a writing center . Don't be shy, they will love to help you. Also try asking around your department to find students who have applied previously.

Review Criteria Details

(Below is direct text from NSF but with sentences cut and added highlights)

General Review Criteria

In considering applications, reviewers are instructed to address the two Merit Review Criteria as approved by the National Science Board - Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. Therefore, applicants must include separate statements on Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts in their written statements in order to provide reviewers with the information necessary to evaluate the application with respect to both Criteria as detailed below.

Reviewers will be asked to evaluate all proposals against two criteria:

Intellectual Merit: the potential to advance knowledge

Broader Impacts: the potential to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes.

The following elements should be considered in the review for both criteria:

What is the potential for the proposed activity to

Advance knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields (Intellectual Merit); and

Benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes (Broader Impacts)?

To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?

Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale ? Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success ?

How well qualified is the individual, team, or organization to conduct the proposed activities?

Are there adequate resources available to the PI (either at the home organization or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities?

Extra details on Broader Impacts: (additional tips from NSF here )

Broader impacts may be accomplished through the research itself , through the activities that are directly related to specific research projects , or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project . NSF values the advancement of scientific knowledge and activities that contribute to achievement of societally relevant outcomes. Such outcomes include, but are not limited to: full participation of women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); improved STEM education and educator development at any level; increased public scientific literacy and public engagement with science and technology; improved well-being of individuals in society; development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce; increased partnerships between academia, industry, and others; improved national security; increased economic competitiveness of the US; and enhanced infrastructure for research and education.

Merit Review Criteria specific to the GRFP

Intellectual Merit Criterion : the potential of the applicant to advance knowledge based on a holistic analysis of the complete application, including the Personal, Relevant Background, and Future Goals Statement, Graduate Research Plan Statement, strength of the academic record, description of previous research experience or publication/presentations, and references.

Broader Impacts Criterion : the potential of the applicant for future broader impacts as indicated by personal experiences, professional experiences, educational experiences and future plans.

Review Criteria: My Two Cents

Here is how I like to think of the review criteria, point by point.

How would answering this research question change science (Intellectual Merit) or society (Broader Impacts)?

Why should I fund you specifically, and not just this research question? What innovation do you specifically bring to the table?

Is there a detailed plan? With built in measures of success?

What are your qualifications?

Can you actual carry out the needed research?

At the end of each essay, you should be able to check off how you answered each point above for BOTH Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.

Personal Statement, Relevant Background, and Future Goals: Essay Prompt from NSF

Prompt in 2021:

Please outline your educational and professional development plans and career goals. How do you envision graduate school preparing your for a career that allows you to contribute to expanding scientific understanding as well as broadly benefit society?

Additional prompt previously provided by NSF:

Describe your personal, educational, and/or professional experiences that motivate your decision to pursue advanced study in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). Include specific examples of any research and/or professional activities in which you have participated. Present a concise description of the activities, highlight the results and discuss how these activities have prepared you to seek a graduate degree. Specify your role in the activity including the extent to which you worked independently and/or as part of a team. Describe the contributions of your activity to advancing knowledge in STEM fields as well as the potential for broader impacts (See Solicitation, Section VI, for more information about Broader Impacts).

NSF Fellows are expected to become globally engaged knowledge experts and leaders who can contribute significantly to research, education, and innovations in science and engineering. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate your potential to satisfy this requirement. Your ideas and examples do not have to be confined necessarily to the discipline that you have chosen to pursue.

Personal Statement, Relevant Background, and Future Goals Essay: My Two Cents

Based on the new emphasis NSF GRFP general requirements, I would write the essay in three main sections with two subsections for Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.

Personal Statement (~1 page). This is where you tell your unique story of either how you became interested in science, what makes you special, and/or any unique perspective you bring to science. Great place to mention if you had to overcome any hardships or would be adding to the diversity of the STEM field. Definitely use this section to highlight Broader Impacts.

Relevant Background (~1 page). Hopefully you already have research experience, so explain how that has prepared you for success in graduate school and beyond. Mainly use this section for Intellectual Merit, but also highly the Broader Impacts of your research experience.

Future Goals (~ 1/2 page). This is where you tie your personal background and scientific background into one cohesive vision for the future.

Intellectual Merit (~1/4 page). Conclude the essay by summarizing all of your contributions to Intellectual Merit. Make sure this is an explicit header.

Broader Impact (~1/4 page). Conclude the essay by summarizing all of your contributions to Broader Impact. Make sure this is an explicit header.

Graduate Research Statement: Essay Prompt from NSF

Present an original research topic that you would like to pursue in graduate school. Describe the research idea, your general approach, as well as any unique resources that may be needed for accomplishing the research goal (i.e. access to national facilities or collections, collaborations, overseas work, etc). You may choose to include important literature citations. Address the potential of the research to advance knowledge and understanding within science as well as the potential for broader impacts on society. The research discussed must be in a field listed in the Solicitation (Section X, Fields of Study).

Graduate Research Statement: My Two Cents

I would recommend structuring the essay as follows:

Introduction

Introduce the scientific problem and its impact on science and society (emphasis on Review Criteria 1)

Research Plan

Show the major steps that need to be accomplished

What is the creative part of your approach?

Have you thought of alternatives for hard or crucial steps?

What skills do you have to make this plan successful?

Intellectual Merit

Have a clear header for this section

Clearly demonstrate that tackling this problem will make an impact and advance science

Try to summarize how you hit all five Review Criteria

Broader Impacts

Paragraphs to address how this research impacts all five Review Criteria.

(Optional). Could use the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts sections as conclusion. If not, e nd with several sentences summarizing your project .

This essay will be Intellectual Merit heavy, but still needs to address Broader Impacts. Show why the broader scientific community / society should care about your research!

Examples of Successful Essays

These are all the essays of recent winners that I could find online. If you want me to link to an example on your website, or if you are willing to share your essays but don't have a site, I can add it to the table if you fill out the contact form below .

Some notes:

Click here to apply your own sort / filters to the table .

Remember the format changed starting in 2014!

If I couldn't figure out the year, I filled in 2013 for old format and 2014 for new formats.

Proposal Column --- Graduate Research Plan ( >= 2014) or Proposed Research ( <= 2013)

Personal Column --- Personal, Relevant Background, and Future Goals ( >= 2014) or Personal ( <= 2013)

Previous Column --- Previous Research Statement ( <= 2013 only)

HM = Honorable Mention

Can't find an example in your area? Tip from GradCafe Forum : politely email past winners !

I've linked to a lot of sites, let me know if any links break! A suggested fix is even better :)

Example essays below, or open in Google Drive

Submit Example Here

NSF GRFP Personal Statement

Criteria for success.

• You are eligible for the Fellowship ( i.e. you are not proposing to pursue an MD-PhD; you are not proposing research about a particular disease or clinical practice).
• Your personal statement convinces a panel of academics that you are qualified to receive the Fellowship, especially with respect to the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact criteria.
• You show only those skills and experiences that demonstrate how you fit those criteria.
• The skills and experiences that you show are concrete and quantitative.
• Your personal statement meets the formatting and page limit criteria.

Note that the Broader Impacts sections can be woven through the rest of the experiences as well as highlighted in separate sections. Sizes of sections are approximate.

Your personal statement (technically, the “Personal, Relevant Background, and Future Goals Statement”) is part of an application that should convince the selection committee to award you the Fellowship.

The GRFP website says, “NSF Fellows are expected to become globally engaged knowledge experts and leaders who can contribute significantly to research, education, and innovations in science and engineering. The purpose of this statement is to demonstrate your potential to satisfy this requirement.”

The personal statement is the only part of the application where you get to lay out the experiences you’ve had, the goals you intend to pursue, and how those experiences and goals qualify you for the Fellowship.

Analyze your Audience

Your entire application will be “reviewed online by virtual panels of disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientists and engineers and other professional graduate education experts”. These are academics, usually from your broad area of science ( e.g. biology) but not from your specific area ( e.g. polymer biomechanics). They will judge your application using some combination of ( a ) the NSF’s official criteria for the Fellowship and ( b ) their own ideas about what makes good science or a good scientist.

The people on the committee read many, many applications. Make it easy for them to figure out that you are qualified for the award by referencing the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impact criteria that they use to judge your application. Make it easy for them to remember you by creating a narrative that “brands” you.

Include Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria

Like many awards or job offers, there are explicit criteria that show if you qualify for the Fellowship. Read the program solicitation to learn the criteria that the selection committee are using to judge your application. Write your personal statement in a way that makes it as clear as possible that you meet these criteria.

The 2015 NSF solicitation says (emphases added):

The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and in STEM education [and senior undergraduates]. The GRFP provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM and STEM education.

Reviewers may consider the following with respect to the Broader Impacts Criterion: the potential of the applicant to benefit society and contribute to the achievement of specific, desired societal outcomes based on a holistic analysis of the complete application, including by personal experiences, professional experiences, educational experiences and future plans.

Read these materials so you know what “Intellectual Merit” and “Broader Impacts” mean to the NSF, and use your personal statement to show how you meet those criteria. Do not just make up your own ideas about what “Broader Impacts” means. The NSF has specific lists of activities that constitute Broader Impacts.

Note that applications prior to 2018 did not require “Intellectual Merit” and “Broader Impacts” to be addressed under separate headings. Be sure to follow the most up-to-date guidelines provided by NSF, especially if you are referencing older examples.

Create a personal narrative

Unlike a grant that funds a specific project, the NSF GRFP invests in the professional and scientific growth of individuals. The program solicitation talks about building a “globally-engaged workforce” and ensuring “the Nation’s leadership in advancing science and engineering research and innovation”.

Your personal statement is your opportunity to show the selection panel that your personal goals ( e.g. collaborating with foreign scientists) align with the program’s goals ( e.g. creating a globally-engaged workforce). Tell a narrative about yourself that is honest, that you’re excited about, and that shows this alignment. Use this narrative through your entire personal statement. It should help you avoid writing a personal statement that is just a resume in essay format.

Concretize and quantify your experiences

Your experiences are the “what” of your essay. Which experiences led you to develop your skill set and passions? Where have you demonstrated accomplishment, leadership, and collaboration? Research, teaching, and relevant extracurriculars are all relevant. State concrete achievements and outcomes like awards, discoveries, or publications.

Quantify your experience or impact to make them more concrete. How many people were on your team? How many protocols did you develop? How many people were in competition for an award? As a TA, how often did you meet with your students?

Describe your actions rather than changes in your mental or emotional state; your personal statement is not a diary entry.

Explain the meaning of your experiences

The meaning of your experiences is the “why” or “so what” of your personal statement. It’s good to have quantitative and concrete experience; it’s even more important to attribute meaning to those experiences.

Every set of experiences should speak to one of the requirements that the NSF GRFP solicitation lays out:

• How has this experience prepared you to seek a graduate degree?
• How will it help you become a globally-engaged knowledge expert or leader?
• How will it help you contribute to research, education, or innovations in science and engineering?
• How will your graduate experience prepare you for a career that expands scientific understanding or benefits society?

The connection between your experiences and the NSF GRFP’s goals may feel obvious to you, but you should make these connections explicit for your audience: this will make it easy for them to put your application in the “yes” pile.

For a writing style that creates logical flow, use statements about the meaning of experience as transitions between experiences. Try to “wrap” meaning around your experiences. Putting the meaning at the beginning and end of a paragraph makes it easy for a reader to understand what they should be taking away from the details in the middle.

This content was adapted from from an article originally created by the  MIT Biological Engineering Communication Lab .

Resources and Annotated Examples

Annotated example 1.

This personal statement was part of an MIT BE graduate student’s successful NSF GRFP application. 11 MB

Example of a successful NSF GRFP application

The other day, I posted a tweet offering to share my old National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program application materials with anyone who was planning to apply this year. Dozens of people have messaged me asking for a copy, and it has become clear to me that there is huge demand for examples of successful fellowship applications.

In the hope of making science just a little bit more open and accessible (and to avoid having to reply to everyone individually), I’ve decided to post my application materials online. They’re available on Figshare for anyone who is interested in reading them. I’ve also added them to the Open Grants project , which acts as a central repository for publicly shared grant and fellowship applications.

I’ve also written up a couple of notes about the application process.

These are from the 2013 application, submitted when I was a post-bac RA applying to PhD programs. It was my second time applying: I had previously applied to PhD programs and the GRFP in my senior year of undergrad. The particulars of the application (e.g. page lengths, formatting) have changed a bit since then, but the evaluation criteria have stayed largely the same.

If I were to give any specific advice, it would be to make sure you hit each and every point of the Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria. Reviewers will often literally have a checklist they go through to see if an application addresses all of the necessary points. The University of Missouri has a great site called GRFP Essay Insights which I found very helpful when writing my application. Someone also linked me to the awesome NSR GRFP Advice page created by Mallory Ladd , which features detailed advice, suggested timelines, additional examples and more!

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, I want to emphasize that I got lucky . Yes, I’m proud of the application I submitted, but luck plays a major role in who gets selected for the GRFP (and for grants in general). So much depends on who you get as reviewers, their expertise, even whether they’ve had a bad day when they’re reviewing your application. I have read GRFP applications from friends and colleagues that didn’t get funded despite being much better than what I submitted. Remember that no matter the outcome of your application (award, honorable mention, or even rejection) , you belong in science just as much as anyone else.

I’m happy to try to answer any questions people might have, though I can’t promise to have any unique insight. Feel free to post a comment.

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Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Workshop Series 2024 - Workshop 1

The MSU AGEP Program is conducting a workshop series that will present NSF GRFP program information and provide structured practice to create competitive GRFP application. The MSU workshop is based on similar workshops at other universities that have resulted in an increase in the number of successful GRFP applications. In the MSU workshop, STEM undergraduate and graduate students will participate in a 5-part series that will include an overview of the GRFP and application process, first-hand advice from GRFP reviewers and recent awardees, and two interactive sessions to review and revise their application documents. The workshop will also provide a timeline and guidance for requesting recommendation letters. In addition to preparing a more competitive GRFP application, workshop participants will gain experience drafting a research outline and conveying their research to broad audiences.

The introductory workshop will provide an overview of the GRFP award and the benefits. In addition, the workshop will provide a hands-on personal statement writing opportunity for preparation for fellowship applications.

Register Here:  https://bit.ly/MSUGRFP24

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The $159,000 funding for STEM gradschool information session: NSF GRFP

National science foundation graduate research fellowship.

If you are starting graduate school or considering pursuing a graduate degree in a STEM program (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and are either a USA citizen, US national or a permanent resident, you should consider applying for a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) . This prestigious fellowship not only provides substantial financial support but also opens doors to a wealth of academic and professional opportunities.

We are hosting an information session on this fellowship, how the application process works, and sharing pointers on submitting a competitive application. Please take into consideration that the winners of this fellowship get more than $159,000 total (3 years of funding) towards their graduate education. Competition is steep, but UMBC has a proud history of several undergrads and graduate students winning this prestigious fellowship, and we are committed to helping more students achieve this success!

The event will be divided into two sessions. The first part is informational, covering best practices, why you should consider applying, techniques for keeping track of the application requirements, how to select your reference writers, what constitutes a strong personal statement, and how the research proposal is put together. That one runs from 10 AM to 11:00 AM. 

The skills you will learn in this session are useful to all graduate students and post docs who are looking to apply to opportunities at NSF and NIH, not only the ones pursuing the NSF GRFP.

Please bring your laptop with a charger if you plan to attend part 1 for an activity.

Who should attend this session?

This session is open to all undergraduate students and first-year graduate students who are thinking about or pursuing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) degree. 

And are either a USA citizen, US national or a permanent resident

Part 2 of this event is for those currently working on their applications. If you are seriously pursuing submitting your application this Fall 2024 , please consider attending the second part of this event. To do so, register to attend, bring your laptop and charger, a first draft of your personal statement , and a list of questions to discuss during the event. This session runs from 11:30 AM to 3 PM and includes lunch.

About our speaker:

Dr. Patti Ordóñez , Associate Professor, Information Systems Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Ordóñez has successfully advised students and mentees towards getting awards for years, not only NSF GRFP but GEM fellowships and Sloan fellowships , and has been a reviewer for the NSF GRFP applications in previous years.

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

Log In to sign up for this event. 36 seats available.

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Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Reference Writers

Reference letters are a key component of a strong application package. The most effective reference letters provide detailed and specific information about how an applicant meets the  NSF Merit Review Criteria of Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts .

The reference letter should include comments on the applicant’s potential for contributing to a globally-engaged United States science and engineering workforce, statements about the applicant’s academic potential and prior research experiences, statements about the applicant’s proposed research, and any other information to enable reviewers to evaluate the application according to the NSF Merit Review Criteria.

Once the applicant completes the appropriate section of their GRFP application, reference writers will receive an email detailing the requirements for the letter and the process of submission. All reference letters must be submitted online via the GRFP Module and received by the deadline for the current competition.

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MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate student Jevan Yu awarded NASA fellowship

Graduate student Jevan Yu was among those selected from a competitive pool of applicants to receive the 3-year Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) Fellowship to support his research in civil and environmental engineering.

Yu is pursuing his doctorate degree in civil and environmental engineering with faculty advisors César Terrer and Charles Harvey. He attended Stanford University for his undergraduate studies, receiving bachelor’s degrees in mathematical and computational science as well as history. His research at MIT focuses on the global carbon and water cycles, with an emphasis on wetlands.

The 3-year, $150,000 grant will fund Yu’s research on wildfires in peatlands. Peatlands are dense stocks of wetland carbon primarily found in areas of Southeast Asia, Siberia, and Canada. Peat fires emit enormous amounts of carbon dioxide, in some cases as much as 5-10% of global annual fossil fuel emissions, making them a significant contributor to global climate change. His research will develop mathematical models guided by satellite remote sensing data to better understand how these fires start and spread. In addition, Yu seeks to improve estimates of carbon emissions from peat fires through this research.

“I am thrilled that the NASA FINESST program recognizes Jevan Yu with this prestigious award to support his research,” says Assistant Professor César Terrer. “This achievement is a testament to his exceptional research which promises significant contributions to the field of environmental engineering. This work will lead to valuable insights and advance our understanding of the impact of peat fires on carbon emissions and climate change.”

The NASA FINESST award provides grants for graduate student designed and performed research projects that contribute to the Science Mission Directorate’s science, technology, and exploration goals.

Four Faculty Members Receive Endowed Chair Professorships

Awards in the news, cee awards and honors 2024, eleven from mit awarded 2024 fulbright fellowships, mit professor césar terrer receives nsf career award to support fundamental research for climate mitigation, mit civil and environmental engineering students awarded nsf graduate research fellowships.

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Graduate Writing Center: Applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

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Presenter: Leezet Matos, Psychology, Graduate Writing ConsultantMarie Payne, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Graduate Writing ConsultantJane Sin, Division of Graduate Education Fellowship ServicesDescription: The workshop will discuss strategies for applying for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This highly competitive fellowship provides three years of fellowship funding to successful applicants. The workshop will focus on the intellectual merit and broader impacts criteria for NSF grants, the structure of the research proposal and personal statement, suggestions for writing style, and tips for Fastlane submission.

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Romancing the stone: DMSE researchers crack magnetic garnet mystery

Scientists love a good mystery—it keeps them querying, testing, changing variables, and trying again. Sometimes a mystery lingers for decades, outlasting technological limitations—and setting the stage for a scientific breakthrough.                                                        Such was the challenge Allison Kaczmarek and her colleagues faced four years ago. A graduate student in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), Kaczmarek set out to uncover why the magnetic properties of garnet crystal thin films were so peculiar.   Artificial garnets, synthesized in labs by scientists, are similar to the gemstone but are made with iron instead of silicon, making them magnetic. Typically, these crystals are isotropic, meaning their magnetic behavior doesn’t vary much no matter which way they’re positioned. But when the same magnetic garnets were grown as thin films for a now obsolete technology called bubble memory, their magnetic properties varied dramatically in different directions. This variation in thin films presented a compelling puzzle for researchers to solve.   Thermodynamics pioneer Herbert Callen attempted to unravel the phenomenon, known as growth-induced anisotropy, in 1971. He theorized that atoms of elements added during the growth process arranged themselves in a certain way, prompting the unusual properties. But at the time, the technology needed to observe what was happening at the atomic level didn’t yet exist, so Callen’s theory remained just that.   “Researchers didn’t really have a way to explain it other than this unproven theory,” Kaczmarek said. “So for a long time, they were just like, ‘Yeah, it must be that the atoms are ordering.’”   Until now. After more than 50 years, Kaczmarek and her advisors, Professors Geoffrey Beach and Caroline Ross, have confirmed Callen’s theory, in a recent Nature Communications paper . Using advanced imaging and analysis techniques, the researchers showed that in artificial garnet films made from rare-earth elements europium and thulium, the europium and thulium atoms arranged themselves in patterns that cause directionally dependent magnetism.   The findings suggest that by controlling the arrangement of atoms in these materials, researchers can fine-tune their properties, which could lead to the development of magnetic devices such as superfast memory technologies. These advancements could impact fields such as data storage, advanced electronics, and medical imaging.   Other authors of the paper include DMSE alum Ethan Rosenberg; graduate students Yixuan Song, Kevin Ye, and Gavin Winter; research specialist Aubrey Penn; and Associate Professor Rafael Gómez-Bombarelli.

The making of a mystery

The quest to explain the unusual magnetic properties of garnet thin films began with Rosenberg, who started growing these films before finishing his PhD in 2021, when Kaczmarek was a first-year student. Though he couldn’t fully explore them, his efforts set the stage for future discoveries.   “He had this crazy idea, ‘Oh, maybe we should try to look directly at ordering in these materials,” Kaczmarek said. “Now I’m in my fourth year and it’s just wrapping up. So it’s been a long journey.”   Rosenberg, and then Kaczmarek, started by revisiting research from the 1970s, when materials researchers made films of artificial garnet crystals for bubble memory, a data storage technology.   Thin films are layers of material deposited onto a substrate, usually a flat surface made of glass or another material. Researchers make them to study and optimize their properties, enabling advancements in various technologies. Bubble memory relied on thin films of magnetic material to hold “bubbles,” which stored information.   “They’d have these chips with the garnet material inside, and they’d have ways of creating these bubbles, which are magnetic domains, and moving them around—that’s how they stored data,” explained Ross, the Ford Professor of Engineering in DMSE. Since the bubbles needed to be stable as they were moved around to read, write, or store data, their magnetization had to point along particular directions, making lab-grown garnet films ideal for the task.   The thin-film production process is key to the material’s unusual properties. Researchers have been making magnetic garnets since the mid-20th century for microwave technology, used in radar systems and communication devices, and for magneto-optical devices in sensors and laser technology. But unlike their thin-film counterparts, the magnetism in three-dimensional garnet crystals does not have a preferred direction.    At the time, the methods for growing thin films differed from today’s sophisticated deposition processes, which involve applying nanometer-thin layers of material to a surface in a vacuum chamber. To make garnet thin films, researchers used to heat raw materials like rare-earth and iron oxides until they melted and then let them grow on a garnet substrate.   Two researchers making garnet thin films, Allan Rosencwaig and W. J. Tabor of Bell Laboratories, noticed that atoms of various elements they used had integrated into the material’s crystal structure—the repeating arrangement of atoms in gemstones, metals, and ceramics. So they consulted with Callen, to understand the phenomenon better. Callen was renowned for his expertise in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, key fields for understanding complex atomic-level phenomena.   Callen proposed that the specific conditions during the thin-film growth process—temperature, composition, and the surface they were grown on—led to the atoms arranging themselves in specific patterns.   He pointed out that as the atoms joined the garnet material, the “sites,” or locations where they attach, have different shapes. For example, some sites might be triangular while others look square. Callen theorized that atoms of different elements prefer specific sites in the crystal structure, and this selective arrangement is what makes the material’s magnetism directionally dependent.   This atomic ordering was less pronounced in three-dimensional garnet crystals because the atoms attached to various sites in the crystal structure at once, so they didn’t arrange themselves in the same distinct patterns.   “That’s how this theory that there’s ordering started, but there hasn’t been real observation of the order until now,” Kaczmarek said.

Piecing it together

That’s partly because researchers spent less time growing and thinking about garnet thin films. Bubble memory fell out of favor in the late ’70s, as hard disk and solid-state drives got faster and their storage capacity increased.   Despite the waning interest in studying the material’s properties for bubble memory, Kaczmarek saw an untapped opportunity to revisit and solve the longstanding puzzle. Without a deeper understanding of the properties, researchers could miss out on discovering advanced magnetic materials for countless new applications.   She sought to validate Callen’s theory, re-creating the old experiments with the aid of modern technology. She began by preparing garnet samples using an advanced thin-film technique called pulsed laser deposition, “a very fun way to make a material,” Kaczmarek said. It works by firing a laser at a target material in a vacuum chamber, vaporizing it. The material is then collected onto a substrate.   The films Kaczmarek made were ultrathin, just a few nanometers thick, allowing her to easily “tune” the composition of the material and study the atomic arrangement in the crystals. She chose europium and thulium for the different sizes of their atoms, ensuring that they would separate into different sites in the crystal structure.   Rosenberg’s initial work in growing these films laid a crucial foundation. Kaczmarek now had the tools and the setup to further investigate and solve the puzzle.   “We grew the films, and we were immediately getting the same results as people 50 years ago”—the material had the same unusual magnetic properties, Kaczmarek said. “But we still didn’t have the visuals, the images of these atoms.”   Unlike Callen in the early ’70s, Kaczmarek could visualize atoms doing what researchers long thought they were doing, with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). This powerful technique focuses a beam of electrons through a material sample, collecting various signals to form an image.   Using STEM in conjunction with atomic resolution spectroscopy, which can single out individual atoms, Kaczmarek could determine which elements were present in the garnet films she made and at what proportions.   But it was no mean feat—since the theory she was trying to confirm predated the tools she was using, there were no protocols for indexing and interpreting data.   “None of the characterization routes had been developed,” Kaczmarek said. “So I really had to inspect the crystal structure carefully and see where can I actually find information that’s useful to me, and where do I have to look somewhere else, or how do I know that what I’m looking at is showing me this or not?”   After identifying specific patterns of atoms indicated in Callen’s theory, Kaczmarek quickly saw evidence that confirmed it. She described her joy when she first saw the rare-earth atoms occupying the sites Callan predicted, which was right around Thanksgiving in 2023.   “We had just seen this image that clearly showed the europium are here, and the thulium are here. And of course, I immediately sent it to Geoff and Caroline, and I can’t forget, Geoff’s response was, ‘Happy Thanksgiving—I’m really gobbling this up!’”   In the paper, Kaczmarek renames the automatic ordering of the elements that form the garnet crystals “magnetotaxial anisotropy”—combining the familiar term for magnetic materials with the Greek “taxis,” meaning arrangement or order. She found the old term, “growth-induced anisotropy,” strongly associated with bubble-memory garnets, outdated and limiting.   “This is an important phenomenon, and I don’t think that it’s only a garnet thing. I think that it must exist elsewhere as well. It must exist in other materials,” Kaczmarek said.   Bethanie Stadler, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study, underscored the significance of focusing on complex oxides, a broad category that includes perovskites, popular in materials research because of their applications in solar cells, lasers, and more. Garnets, complex oxides with a far more intricate crystal structure, offer a richer potential for discovery.   “You could put half the periodic table into the garnet structure if you get the cation ratios right,” said Stadler, a DMSE alum, referring to the positively charged ions that occupy sites in the crystal. “If you can solve the mystery for garnets, you can apply these insights to other complex oxide structures.”   Stadler also noted that the study’s findings on atomic ordering and anisotropy might lead to new ways to control how ions are arranged in crystals, which could affect their properties.   “I find this study interesting because it is likely to get readers thinking of new ways to control anisotropy. For garnets, ‘growth-induced’ anisotropy is a term that has been used like a generic diagnosis, so clarifying its origins is important for engineering new technologically important properties.”

Crystallizing possibilities

Now that the theory that growing artificial garnets causes directionally dependent magnetism is confirmed, researchers have a new “knob” to fine-tune the material’s magnetic properties, Kaczmarek said. By adjusting growth conditions—such as deposition speed, temperature, and pressure—they can control the degree of anisotropy, tailoring materials for specific applications.   “The processing will inherently change the end properties of our material,” Kaczmarek said.   Such precision opens the door to advanced magnetic devices and technologies that could transform data storage, computing, and medical imaging. One key focus is spintronics, a new technology that leverages the “spin,” or momentum, of electrons for ultrafast data processing, lower power consumption, and greater data storage capacity.   To support these applications, Ross is working on favoring out-of-plane magnetization in garnets and related complex oxide materials. This property, in which a material’s magnetism is aligned perpendicular to its surface, is crucial for spintronic and magneto-optical devices, which can be used for data storage, modulators, or sensors.   “We’re hoping that by taking advantage of this phenomenon, this magnetotaxial anisotropy, we can make materials which will be ideal for high-speed magnetic memory and magneto-optical and photonic devices.”   Ross wants to push the concept further still, creating garnet films with the desired properties, and transferring them to silicon substrates.   “Everyone loves silicon. You can build your whole circuit on silicon, but you can’t grow garnet on silicon, at least not easily,” Ross said. “An argument is to grow the garnet separately, on a garnet substrate, and then peel it off and transfer it.” Affixing it to silicon, the foundation of most electronic devices, would incorporate the garnet film’s unique properties into mainstream electronics.   Ross’s team is working with Professor Jeehwan Kim of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and DMSE on this thin-film transfer technology, “a hot topic right now,” she says.   Stadler highlighted Kaczmarek’s rebranding of growth-induced anisotropy with the term “magnetotaxial,” suggesting it could inspire researchers to explore other ways of inducing this property.   “I think the new term does start people thinking, ‘What, besides the growth surface, could introduce an anisotropy like that?’” Stadler said. “It’s going to be really fun to see what comes next for complex oxide anisotropy.”   Beyond the applications, the “coolest thing” about the study is that it solved a 50-year-old mystery, said Ross. Her students dusted off an unconfirmed theory, applied modern experimental techniques, and closed this once-cold case. “You think of stuff that happened before your students were born and they’ve proven it,” Ross said. “That’s very cool.” This research was supported by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program and the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Eligibility: general.

How can I determine if I am eligible to apply to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)?

How do I determine my Academic Level (1-4)?

At what point in my academic career can I apply to NSF GRFP?

Can I apply if I plan to attend a non-US institution?

Are non-US citizens/permanent 5 residents eligible to apply?

ELIGIBILITY: CURRENT UNDERGRADUATES

I have a Bachelor's degree, but no graduate study yet. I am in the process of applying to graduate school this year. Can I apply to the upcoming NSF GRFP competition, or must I wait until I'm in graduate school?

I will be entering a Master's program next year. Am I eligible to apply to NSF GRFP?

ELIGIBILITY: JOINT BACHELOR'S-MASTER'S DEGREE

How do the eligibility rules apply to joint Bachelor's-Master's degree students?

What does GRFP consider to be a joint Bachelor's-Master's program?

What if I previously applied in the fourth year of my joint Bachelor's-Master's program? Under the one-time rule for graduate applicants, am I still eligible to apply in the final year of my joint Bachelor's-Master's program?

What if I previously applied in the final year of my joint Bachelor's-Master's program? Under the one-time rule for graduate student applicants, am I still eligible to apply in the first year of my Ph.D. program?

What if I previously earned a joint Bachelor's-Master's degree?

ELIGIBILITY: CURRENT GRADUATE STUDENTS

I am currently a beginning graduate student. When can I apply to NSF GRFP?

I enrolled in a graduate program earlier than Fall of the application year (i.e., Winter, Spring, or Summer semester), so I will have completed at least one semester's worth of graduate study by this year's application deadline in October. How does that affect my eligibility?

I applied last year as an undergraduate. I am now in graduate school, am I eligible to apply again?

I applied last year as a first-year graduate student. I have changed fields, or the degree type I am pursuing, this year and I am in the first year of a different graduate program. Am I eligible to apply this year?

I am a second-year graduate student and completed one academic year of a graduate program last year. However, before my current graduate program I took several additional graduate courses after my Bachelor's degree. Am I still eligible?

If I apply as a first-year graduate student for this year's competition, will I be able to apply as a second-year graduate student for next year's competition?

I am in the 1st year of my Ph.D. program, I previously earned a Master's degree, am I still eligible?

I am in the beginning of the second year of my graduate program. My transcript shows that I registered for research hours the summer before my first year in the graduate program. Am I still eligible?

ELIGIBILITY: PREVIOUS GRADUATE STUDY

I have completed more than one academic year of graduate study. Are there any circumstances in which I could be eligible?

I hold a Master's degree and plan to return to graduate school after an interruption of longer than two years. Can I enroll in another Master's program?

I completed a Master's degree in less than 12 months, with no additional graduate study after that. Am I still eligible?

I have been working for several years since getting my doctoral degree and would like to go back to graduate school in another field. Can this count as an "interruption" in graduate study, for the purposes of applying to NSF GRFP?

I took some graduate-level courses after finishing my undergraduate program, but they were not part of a degree program. Do they count as "graduate study" for the NSF GRFP?

My job required me to take some continuing education credits for a professional credential and these continuing education credits were at the graduate level. Do these count towards the limit of allowed graduate study?

ELIGIBILITY: FIELD OF STUDY

How can I find out if my specific research topic is eligible?

What are the new subfields for Geosciences and how do I add one of these to my field of study in the application module?

I am enrolled in a clinical psychology program. Am I eligible?

I am enrolled in a biology program, and I am conducting biomedical research. Am I eligible?

Are there any restrictions on the type of research that NSF GRFP will support?

I am enrolled in a bioengineering program and my research will involve applications that aid people with disabilities. Am I eligible?

What is Other or Interdisciplinary used for when selecting Field of Study?

What are the high priority research areas mentioned in the NSF GRFP Solicitation?

I am changing fields of study. Does NSF consider that to be an extenuating circumstance that would merit an exception to the limit on previous graduate study?

Can I accept the Fellowship but change the field of study? Can I accept the Fellowship but change the degree program?

ELIGIBILITY: ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

Can I apply to NSF GRFP and wait to apply to graduate school in a future year, if I am offered a Fellowship?

If I apply for the NSF GRFP this year and I am not offered a Fellowship can I re-apply?

Can I apply for the NSF GRFP if I do not know where I will be attending graduate school? I don't know if I will be accepted by the program of my choice so the research I plan to conduct may change.

What if I am offered a Fellowship, but change my mind and decide to put off enrolling in graduate school? Can I defer the Fellowship?

Who is NOT eligible to apply to the NSF GRFP?

Do you have additional questions about eligibility?

MERIT REVIEW CRITERIA

What are NSF's Merit Review Criteria for the NSF GRFP?

What counts as evidence of Intellectual Merit?

How are Broader Impacts defined by NSF?

How much weight is given to Intellectual Merit versus Broader Impacts when applications are reviewed? Must I address each of these Criteria in each of my statements?

NSF GRFP FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION DOCUMENT UPLOAD

What format is required by the GRFP Application Module for uploading documents?

What are the PDF upload document formatting and compliance requirements?

Why is there a margin error for my PDF? My margins are set to one inch.

Why do I receive a font error upon document upload when the font was set to an acceptable font type and size using "Select All"?

What should I consider if I include images in my statement files?

What other known issues should I be aware of regarding unallowable fonts when exporting a file to PDF?

How do I check to see if all my documents have been submitted?

Can I email a part of the application if it does not load before the deadline?

If my deadline has passed, can I submit it with another FOS?

Can a reference writer submit the letter of support via email after the deadline?

My module was not working and therefore I missed the deadline, where do I go from here?

Fastlane never answered my request before the deadline and I could not submit it, how do I submit it now that the date has passed?

TRANSCRIPTS

Are transcripts required?

Do the transcripts uploaded with my application need to be official transcripts?

My school doesn't give electronic transcripts. How do I include transcripts in my application?

I just started at my current institution and do not have a transcript. What can I do?

My school offers official electronic transcripts that require the recipient to login and download the transcript. May I list the NSF GRFP's contact information, and have the NSF GRFP download the transcript and add it to my application?

My school's official electronic transcripts are password protected. Can I still submit them?

I receive an error when uploading my transcript file.

I have attended several schools. Do I need to list all of them and upload all of the transcripts?

APPLICATION

Are GRE scores required for the NSF GRFP application?

Can I include links with supplemental material, such as papers, videos, etc. for reviewers to consider?

Can I obtain copies of past applications or statements from previously awarded applications?

Will my application be reviewed if I submit it right after the deadline?

How should I select my Major Field of Study?

My intended study is interdisciplinary, so I will select multiple fields for my application. Will my application be reviewed by reviewers drawn from these multiple fields?

STATEMENT FORMATTING

What are the formatting requirements for the statements?

What are the page limits for the statements?

Do I need to put my name, applicant ID or other identifying information on the statements?

Should I put my name, the statement title, and page numbers in the margins on the statements?

Can I use a smaller font for figures and tables?

For the Graduate Research Plan Statement, can I put my references on a third page?

Must my Graduate Research Plan Statement have a reference section?

When I upload my statement in the NSF GRFP Application Module, there is an additional blank page at the end, which causes my statement to exceed the page limit. Will my statement be accepted?

Can I use "exactly 11 point" line spacing?

How should I ensure that my application complies with the format requirements and isn't rejected by the GRFP Application Module?

REFERENCE LETTERS

How can I find out if my reference letters have been submitted?

What happens if more than three of my reference letters are submitted?

Can I change the priority rankings for my references?

My reference writer was asked to provide letters for several applicants and other applicants show up on his/her list of applicants, my name does not. How can I ensure that the letter is submitted?

Can reference letters be submitted by email or by physical mail?

My reference writer did not receive the email nominating them to serve as a reference writer or the email containing their temporary password.

I missed the deadline to submit my reference letter, how can I submit it now?

NOTIFICATIONS

When will applicants be notified of the results?

How are notifications sent?

I did not receive a notification. What should I do?

Can I receive additional feedback beyond the comments I received on my reviews?

Can I appeal the results of my application if I was not offered a Fellowship?

Does NSF offer any additional Fellowships after the selection announcements?

Is there a waiting list for NSF GRFP, and if so, how can I be placed on the waiting list?

INFORMATION FOR REFERENCE WRITERS

I am unable to log in using the temporary password I received via email.

I did not receive the email nominating me to serve as a reference writer or the email containing my temporary password.

I was asked to provide letters for several applicants, but one is not showing up on my list of applicants. How can I submit the letter?

What are the format requirements for the letters of reference?

Is there a page limit for letters of reference?

INFORMATION FOR REVIEWERS

How can I become an NSF GRFP Reviewer?

I have served as an NSF GRFP Reviewer before. Do I need to view the training materials and participate in the orientation webinar again?

Are NSF GRFP Reviewers paid?

How will I receive the flat rate fee?

I do not have a PhD, am I eligible to serve as a reviewer?

I am a current postdoc, am I eligible to serve as a reviewer?

Am I eligible to serve if my student is applying or I have written a letter of recommendation for an NSF GRFP applicant?

I work at an institution or organization outside the United States, am I eligible to serve as a reviewer?

See chart below. More information regarding applicant level is at https://nsfgrfp.org/ .

You can apply both before you begin your graduate studies and as an early graduate student. Undergraduates (typically seniors) can apply if they are ready to enroll full-time in a graduate program by the following Fall. Bachelor's degree-holders with no graduate study can apply every year until they enroll in a graduate degree program.

If you did not apply while enrolled in the joint Bachelor's-Master's degree program and continued directly to a doctoral program after completion of the joint degree, you are eligible to apply only as a first-year doctoral student.

As a currently enrolled graduate student, you can apply only once, and only if you have completed no more than one academic year of graduate study as indicated on the Registrar-issued transcript from the university attended as of the application deadline. That means you can apply in your first year or the beginning of the second year of graduate school.

Your graduate status indicated on the Registrar-issued academic transcript will determine your eligibility status at the application deadline. If your transcript indicates more than one academic year of graduate study has been completed, you are not eligible. You must also meet the other eligibility requirements.

IMPORTANT: Graduate status is determined to begin on the date indicated on the Registrar-issued transcript. If your transcript indicates your student status is graduate in the summer before the start of Fall courses, you are considered a graduate student who began graduate study in the summer.

For the 2024 GRFP application there are 16 new GEO subfields:

Coastal marine science Coastal studies Ocean technology (ROVs, AUVs, sensors) Geoinformatics Paleooceanography Earth System Science Heliospheric Physics Ionospheric Physics Space Weather Geochronology Marine Ecology Volcanology Environmental Science Geology Remote Sensing Sea Ice

NSF does not fund research for which the goals are directly human disease- or health-related, including the etiology, diagnosis, and/or treatment of disease or disorder is not eligible for support. See section IV.3 of the NSF GRFP Solicitation for detail explanation.

GRFP applications are reviewed in the first Major Field of Study selected and assigned to reviewers with expertise in the subfields listed in the solicitation. "Other" indicates a subfield not included in the list, thus there may not be reviewers with corresponding expertise. Applications indicating "Other" subfields will be randomly assigned to reviewers in the Major Field of Study.

The "Interdisciplinary" designation is collected solely for informational purposes and applications marked "Interdisciplinary" will not be reviewed by experts in all the fields selected.

Only if you meet eligibility requirements for the active competition.

• Individuals who are not U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents are not eligible. Foreign nationals who are in the U.S. on a student visa and those awaiting green cards are not eligible.
• Individuals who do not intend to enroll or be enrolled in a research-based graduate degree program at a non-profit institution of higher education accredited in, and having a campus located in, the United States, its territories, or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, in an eligible Field of Study in STEM or STEM education (see Appendix and Section IV.3 in the NSF GRFP Solicitation for eligible Fields of Study) by Fall of the year Fellowship is offered, are not eligible.
• Individuals who have previously accepted an NSF GRFP offer are not eligible.
• Individuals who were offered the Fellowship and did not notify NSF of their intention to accept or decline the fellowship by the published deadline for accepting the fellowship are not eligible.
• Individuals who have previously applied while enrolled in a degree-granting graduate program are not eligible.
• Individuals who have earned a doctoral or terminal degree in any field are not eligible.
• Individuals who are current NSF employees are not eligible.
• Individuals who will be enrolled in a practice-oriented professional degree program such as medical, dental, law, and public health degrees at any time during the fellowship are not eligible. Ineligible degree programs include, but are not limited to, MBA, MPH, MSW, JD, MD, DVM, PharmD, and DDS.
• Individuals who plan to enroll in a joint science-professional degree program (such as an MD/Ph.D. or JD/Ph.D.) even if they are proposing to use the GRFP only for the Ph.D. part of their program are not eligible. Additionally, applicants who are enrolled, or plan to enroll, in a graduate degree program while on a leave of absence from a professional degree program or professional degree-graduate degree joint program are not eligible.

The official NSF GRFP eligibility guidelines are published in the NSF GRFP Solicitation . Read the eligibility criteria thoroughly to ensure you, your field of study, proposed degree program, and proposed research are all eligible.

Reviewers evaluating applications submitted to the Graduate Research Fellowship Program may consider the following with respect to the Intellectual Merit Criterion:

What is the potential for the proposed activity to:

• Advance knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields (Intellectual Merit); and
• Benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes (Broader Impacts)?
• To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
• Is the plan for carrying out the proposed activities well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale? Does the plan incorporate a mechanism to assess success?
• How well qualified is the individual, team, or organization to conduct the proposed activities?
• Are there adequate resources available to the applicant (either at the home organization or through collaborations) to carry out the proposed activities?

Broader impacts may be accomplished through the research itself, through the activities that are directly related to specific research projects, or through activities that are supported by, but are complementary to, the project. NSF values the advancement of scientific knowledge and activities that contribute to achievement of societally relevant outcomes.

Both Criteria are to be given full consideration during the review and decision-making processes; each Criterion is necessary but neither, by itself, is sufficient. Therefore, applicants must fully address both Criteria in each statement.

Applicants are reviewed on their demonstrated potential to advance knowledge and to make significant research achievements and contributions to their fields throughout their careers. Reviewers are asked to assess applications using a holistic, comprehensive approach, giving balanced consideration to all components of the application, including the educational and research record, leadership, outreach, service activities, and future plans, as well as individual competencies, experiences, and other attributes. The aim is to recruit and retain a diverse cohort of early-career individuals with high potential for future achievements, contributions, and broader impacts in STEM and STEM education.

All application documents must be uploaded in PDF format. These documents include:

• Transcripts
• Personal, Relevant Background and Future Goals Statement
• Graduate Research Plan Statement
• Reference Letters

PDF-compatible templates for both Personal Statement and Graduate Research Plan are available at https://nsfgrfp.org/ .

• Times New Roman font for text, Cambria Math for equations, Symbol font for non-alphabetic characters (it is recommended that equations and symbols be inserted as an image)
• Font size 11-pt or higher (except text that is part of an image)
• No less than single spacing (approximately six lines of text within a vertical space of one inch)
• 1" margins on all sides, no text inside 1" margins (no header, footer, name, or page number)
• Standard letter paper size (8.5" by 11")
• File cannot be a scanned image
• File size cannot exceed 10 MB
• File cannot be password protected
• File cannot be empty
• Personal, Relevant Background and Future Goals Statement cannot exceed 3 pages
• Graduate Research Plan Statement cannot exceed 2 pages

Reference letters and transcripts must conform to the following requirements:

• File cannot be password protected or encrypted
• Reference letter cannot exceed 2 pages

Some potential root causes may be:

• Remove page numbers: Be sure that the document has no text in the header or footer including page numbers.
• Review inserted images or shapes: Margins can be set to one inch, but a stray image or shape can violate the margin rule. Setting the margin rule to one inch would not automatically correct the images or shapes within margins.

It may be due to the word processor used to export files to PDF.

For Microsoft Office, "Select All" will not include inserted images, shapes, and numbered lists or bullets. Each object will have its own font and those would have to be updated to accepted fonts and sizes. Be mindful of images inserted into shapes, as each image and shape can have its own font type.

• OpenOffice inserts an unallowable font for superscript and subscript.
• Google Docs may not properly export bulleted text and should not be used.
• Certain LaTeX-generated PDF elements are not yet supported. If using LaTeX, use the function to create a PDF and check to ensure that it is accepted by the GRFP Application Module well in advance of the deadline .
• Microsoft Office for Macs "Save as PDF" functionality "Best for Printing" may not be supported. Instead, select the "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service)" option.
• Older versions of Microsoft Word (2007 or earlier) may produce font errors.
• For Microsoft Office, do not use "Print as PDF" to create a PDF. Instead, use "Export" and "Create PDF."

If you just started at your current institution, you can upload an unofficial transcript, a class schedule, or enrollment verification form from your school showing the courses for which you are registered. It is helpful if the document you upload shows what courses you are taking in the fall as it gives reviewers some information about your coursework.

No. The only application content that is considered by reviewers is what is submitted via the NSF GRFP Application Module by the application deadline. Do not submit any other material. Nothing will be accepted via email.

Select the Major Field of Study and the subfield that is closest to your research interests. If the subfield is not listed, it may not be eligible for NSF GRFP.

No. Your application will be reviewed in the Major Field of Study that you select. Check the list of eligible Fields of Study and the subfields in the NSF GRFP Solicitation Appendix and choose as your Major Field of Study the one that you consider most compatible with your research interests. Your reviewers will be drawn from experts within that field. You can consult your advisor(s) for input about this decision.

We strongly recommend using the templates for both Personal Statement and Graduate Research Plan available at https://nsfgrfp.org/ to ensure the statements will be format-compliant.

See templates available at https://nsfgrfp.org/ .

The statements must be written using:

• Standard 8.5" x 11"-page size
• Times New Roman font for all text, Cambria Math font for equations, Symbol font for non-alphabetic characters (it is recommended that equations and symbols be inserted as an image)
• 11-point or higher font, except text that is part of an image
• No less than single spacing (approximately 6 lines per inch). Do not use line spacing options such as "exactly 11-point," that are less than single spaced.

Compliance with these requirements will be automatically checked by the GRFP Application Module. If your documents are not compliant, they will not be accepted by the NSF GRFP Application Module.

We strongly recommend using the templates available at https://nsfgrfp.org/ .

No. All reference letters must be submitted online through the NSF GRFP Application Module. If you need assistance with the reference letter submission process, please contact the NSF Help Desk at [email protected] or 1-800-673-6188.

There are a few reasons that your reference writer may not have received the email nominating them as a reference writer. Please check the following if this occurs:

• Ensure you have initiated sending the email . When adding your reference writer to your application, you must hit the "Send Email" link on the References Screen to send the email notification to the reference writer.
• Check the reference writer's email address . Check to ensure that the email address you have entered for the reference writer is accurate. An exact email address is crucial to matching the reference writer and the applicant in the NSF GRFP Application Module. If there is a typo or you need to change the email address, you can choose to edit the reference writer record (either from your unsubmitted application or from the Manage References link in the NSF GRFP Application Module). After editing the reference writer email address, the "Send Email" link will reappear on the references screen, allowing you to re-send the nomination email.
• Check spam folders . Ask your reference writer to check their spam or junk folder to ensure that the email did not get sent to one of those folders inadvertently.
• Ask your reference writer for an alternate email addres s. It is possible that the email domain used by your reference writer is rejecting the email and not allowing delivery. In this case, request an alternate email from your reference writer to be used for this purpose. You can then edit the email address and use the "Send Email" link that appears to re-send the nomination email.
• If you have confirmed that the email address entered for the reference is accurate but they have not received the request, you must delete the reference and add it again .
• Ensure that the reference writer is not forwarding their email to another account. NSF emails might not be forwarded from the email address that is in the Application Module.

If you have received your temporary password and are unable to log in to the NSF GRFP Reference Writer Module, check the following:

• Check your email address . Check to confirm you are trying to log in using the same email address entered for you by the applicant. The email address provided by the applicant can be found in the body of the email you received with your temporary password. An exact email address is crucial to matching the reference writer and the applicant in the NSF GRFP Application Module.
• Check the temporary password . Record the temporary password and type it into the module manually rather than copying and pasting.
• Ensure you are using the most recent Temporary Password received . Occasionally, a user will inadvertently select "Create A Password" multiple times. If this occurs, use the temporary password in the most recent email you received.

There are a few reasons that you may not have received the email nominating you as a reference writer. Please check the following if this occurs:

• Confirm your email address with the applicant . Check to ensure that the email address the applicant entered for you is accurate. If there is a typo or if they need to change the email address, the applicant can edit the reference writer record in their application and have the nomination email resent to you. An exact email address is crucial to matching the reference writer and the applicant in the NSF GRFP Application Module.
• Check spam folders . Check your spam or junk folder to ensure that the email did not get sent to one of those folders inadvertently.
• Use an alternate email address . It is possible that your email domain is rejecting the email and not allowing delivery. In this case, provide an alternate email address to the applicant and they will be able to edit your reference writer record in their application and re-send the nomination email

The letter must be a PDF and adhere to the following requirements:

• Letter must be signed
• Use institutional or professional letterhead, if possible
• 2-page limit, standard 8.5" x 11" page size
• Times New Roman, 11-point font in the body of the letter
• Name and title of reference writer
• Department and institution or organization

No. All reference letters must be submitted online through the NSF GRFP Module. If you need assistance with the reference letter submission process, please contact the NSF Help Desk at [email protected] or 1-800-673-6188.

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Brown CS Master’s Student Yumeng Ma Receives An NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

• Posted by Robayet Hossain
• on Aug. 27, 2024
• Socially Responsible Computing ,

Brown CS Master’s student Yumeng Ma (advised by Brown CS faculty member Jeff Huang ) has just received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her work in human-computer interaction, specifically at the intersection of human-AI interaction and accessibility. The award is the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, and aims to recognize and support outstanding graduate students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Previously, Yumeng received concurrent Bachelor of Science degrees in computer science and psychology from Arizona State University, where she first became interested in human-computer interaction. At Brown, Yumeng became involved in projects within Jeff’s Brown HCI Lab . 

Yumeng’s current research is on developing a proactive context-aware system that helps blind and low-vision individuals navigate and explore their surroundings by leveraging the combined use of large language models and vision questioning models. Her interest is in creating and researching interactive social and visual systems that improve user experience, accessibility, and mental health.

“Due to my personal experiences, I am passionate about designing and expanding accessible technology to empower people of all abilities,” Yumeng says. “I’ve always wanted to pursue research that will really make an impact on people’s lives.”

Yumeng will be taking her NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to the University of Washington in the fall semester, where she is starting her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering, supported by a Paul G. Allen Fellowship as well.

“Receiving this fellowship means a lot to me,” Yumeng adds. “It’s reassuring to know that my work resonates with others and that there’s genuine support for my ideas.”

Approximately 24 of the other NSF winners attended Brown as undergraduate students. Yumeng joins nine other prior Brown CS winners of the fellowship, the most recent winner being Lucy Qin .

For more information, click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communications Manager Jesse C. Polhemus .

Computer Science at Brown University Providence, Rhode Island 02912 USA Phone: 401-863-7600 Map & Directions / Contact Us

University of South Florida

USF Research & Innovation

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From L to R: Albert Kim (Co-PI), Yasin Yilmaz (Co-PI), Ashok Kumar (PI), Srinivas Katkoori (Co-PI) and Norma Alcantar (Co-PI) in Cleanroom Facilities at USF Nanotechnology Research and Education Center (NREC)

USF receives $3 million for interdisciplinary NSF research traineeship award to advance semiconductor research and education

• August 26, 2024

The NSF Research Traineeship Program (NRT) awarded a five-year, $3 million funding grant to the University of South Florida (USF) for the development and implementation of a comprehensive and experiential learning-based education, research, training and skills development program in semiconductor design, manufacturing and packaging for graduate students. The NRT is a prestigious, national program that supports annual cohorts of trainees in developing the skills, knowledge and competencies needed to pursue a range of STEM careers. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high- priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

Principal Investigator, Professor Ashok Kumar (Mechanical Engineering), along with Co-Principal Investigators, Professor Srinivas Katkoori (Computer Science & Engineering), Associate Professor Albert Kim (Medical Engineering), Associate Professor Yasin Yilmaz (Electrical Engineering), and Professor Norma Alcantar (Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering) were awarded the grant for a project entitled “NRT: Science, Technology, Engineering, Program for Upward Partnership (STEP-UP) for Advancing Microelectronics Education and Training.” This grant will provide approximately 23 graduate (15 doctoral and 8 master) student fellowships to advance research in the much-needed field of semiconductor technologies.

“Much-publicized semiconductor chips shortage has impacted several critical industries. A skilled and diverse pipeline of workers is critical to building a sustainable domestic semiconductor industry and to achieving the CHIPS Act economic and national security goals. This NRT grant will provide to better prepare master’s and doctoral students for the interdisciplinary talents required in semiconductor chip development,” said Ashok Kumar, the principal investigator of the NSF NRT project.

“USF’s STEP-UP NRT program is a unique cutting-edge training program that not only trains a graduate student in interdisciplinary technical skills and novel convergent approaches but also emphasizes on all-round trainee development in terms of communication, teamwork, project management, ethics and leadership to create tomorrow’s world leaders in the semiconductor field.” said Srinivas Katkoori, Co-investigator of the NRT project. 

“Semiconductor industries are very reluctant to hire students without having any hands-on experience in semiconductor standard clean room facilities,” said Senior Personnel Robert Tufts and Rich Everly from the Nanotechnology Research and Education Center (NREC). They will be involved in providing the basic semiconductor fundamentals, processing, and design concept in fabrication of functional semiconductor devices in class 1000 clean room facilities at NREC.

Senior personnel Steve Kozlowski (Psychology Department), Grandon Gill (Muma College of Business), Sudeep Sarkar (Computer Science & Engineering Department) and Joanna Burchfield (College of Engineering) will be involved in comprehensive education and training activities for NRT Fellows in leadership, communication, teamwork, ethics, entrepreneurship skills, etc. 

“This NSF-funded NRT program will be a model for a future interdisciplinary graduate program at USF and it brings significant benefit to our institution. It forges a convergent and innovative program to train graduates in Semiconductor Technology,” said Ruth Bahr, Dean of Graduate Studies, USF (Tampa Campus).

“USF’s ability to provide advanced semiconductor training to graduate students in a teaching clean room will strengthen the U.S. technical workforce. USF will increase capacity-building of skilled graduate scholars through strategic public-private collaborations and partnerships with government agencies, national laboratories, and academia.” said Sylvia Thomas, USF Vice President of Research and Innovation.

“The NSF Research Traineeship Award will significantly impact the quality of graduate education at USF and will bring a wide range of benefits to the research scholars we serve,” said Prasant Mohapatra, Provost and Executive Vice President. “At USF, we believe highly integrative graduate research training equips students with the skills and knowledge to tackle complex, real-world challenges. These programs foster critical thinking, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, which are vital for addressing the pressing issues of our time

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Sverdlovsk Oblast

Natural resources

Early history, medieval history and russian expansion, rise of the mining-metallurgical era, soviet ural, post-soviet transition, administrative divisions, demographics, settlements, ethnic groups, chairmen of the oblast duma, chairmen of the house of representatives of the legislative assembly, economy and transportation, sister relationships, notable people, external links.

Most of the oblast is spread over the eastern slopes of the Middle and North Urals and the Western Siberian Plain . Only in the southwest does the oblast stretch onto the western slopes of the Ural Mountains .

The highest mountains all rise in the North Urals, Konzhakovsky Kamen at 1,569 metres (5,148   ft) and Denezhkin Kamen at 1,492 metres (4,895   ft) . The Middle Urals is mostly hilly country with no discernible peaks; the mean elevation is closer to 300 to 500 metres (980 to 1,640   ft) above sea level. [9] Principal rivers include the Tavda , the Tura , the Chusovaya , and the Ufa , the latter two being tributaries of the Kama .

Sverdlovsk Oblast borders with, clockwise from the west, Perm Krai , the Komi Republic , Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug , Tyumen Oblast , Kurgan , and Chelyabinsk Oblasts , and the Republic of Bashkortostan .

The area is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Rich in natural resources, the oblast is especially famous for metals ( iron , copper , gold , platinum ), minerals ( asbestos , gemstones , talcum ), marble and coal . It is mostly here that the bulk of Russian industry was concentrated in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The area has continental climate patterns, with long cold winters (average temperatures reaching −15   °C (5   °F) to −25   °C (−13   °F) on the Western Siberian Plain) and short warm summers. Only in the southeast of the oblast do temperatures reach +30   °C (86   °F) in July.

• You can help expand this section with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian . (November 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Russian article.

The territory of the region has been inhabited since ancient times. Numerous sites of ancient people were discovered, dating from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age. The Upper Paleolithic includes the Garinsky site on the right bank of the Sosva river near the village of Gari , the site in the Shaitansky grotto, and the site in the Bezymyanny cave (X millennium BC). [10] [11] In 1890, the 11 thousand years old (Mesolithic) Shigir idol was discovered. [12]

A settlement and a burial ground in the Kalmatsky Brod tract are located on the right bank of the Iset river and date back to the Sarmatian time (from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD). They belong to the Kalmak archaeological culture. In the Kalmatsky Brod burial ground, the skeletal skulls were strongly deformed by tight bandaging in early childhood, which indicates the penetration of steppe ethnic elements to the north. [13]

There are numerous pictograms on the Koptelovsky stone, on the Oblique stone, on the Two-eyed stone, Starichnaya, Serginskaya, the rock paintings of the Bronze Age on the Neyva River, Tagil River (villages Brekhovaya, Gaevaya, Komelskaya), rock carvings on Shaitan-Kamen on the right bank of the Rezh river tied to indigenous Ural population, possibly speakers of a Ugric language . [14] [15] The Gostkovskaya Pisanitsa refers to the Middle Ages. [12]

Before the first Russian colonists arrived to the region, it was populated by various Turkic and Ugrian tribes. By the 16th century, when the Middle Urals were under influence of various Tatar khanates, the strongest local state was the Vogul Pelym principality with its center in Pelym .

The Russian conquest of the Khanate of Kazan in the 1550s paved the way further east, which was now free from Tatar depredations (see Yermak Timofeyevich ). The first surviving Russian settlements in the area date back to the late 16th   – early 17th centuries ( Verkhoturye , 1598; Turinsk , 1600; Irbit , 1633; Alapayevsk , 1639). At that time, those small trading posts were governed under Siberian administration in Tobolsk . After the 1708 administrative reform, Verkhoturye, Pelym and Turinsk became a part of the new Siberian Governorate , in 1737 their territories were assigned to the Kazan Governorate .

During the 18th century, rich resources of iron and coal made Ural an industrial heartland of Russia. After getting control over Ural mines, the Demidov family put the region in the forefront of Russian industrialization. Yekaterinburg , Nevyansk and Tagil ironworks, founded in the 1700s to 1720s, soon joined the ranks of the major producers in Europe. Throughout the 18th and 19th century those newly founded factory towns enjoyed a status of special mining-metallurgical districts allowed to have a certain rate of financial and proprietary autonomy. During the 1781 reform middle Ural finally got its own regional administration in the form of the Perm Governorate .

When in 1812 the Russian government legalized gold digging for its citizens, Middle Ural became a center of gold mining. Entrepreneurs of the Perm Governorate also started the gold rush in West Siberia, soon Yekaterinburgers began to dominate the Russian market of precious metals and gemstones.

After the emancipation reform of 1861 , major Middle Uralian industries that were heavily dependent on serf labor entered decline, although it also allowed light industry to thrive. In 1878, Perm and Yekaterinburg were connected with a railroad, in 1888, railroads reached Tyumen , and ultimately, in 1897, Yekaterinburg joined the Trans-Siberian network . Emergence of railroad transportation helped to revitalize economy of Ural.

The Bolsheviks established their power in Yekaterinburg and Perm during the first days of the October Revolution of 1917. In early 1918 the dethroned Czar Nicholas II and his family were transferred under custody to Yekaterinburg. Local Bolsheviks decided autonomously to execute the royal family on July 17, 1918, to prevent its rescue of by the approaching White Army forces. Ten days later Yekaterinburg was captured by the Czechoslovak troops of Sergei Wojciechowski . For the next year the Anti-bolshevik forces took control over the region. On 19 August 1918, Provisional Government of Ural was formed in Yekaterinburg by a coalition of liberal and democratic socialist parties, it was supposed to serve as a buffer between the Komuch and Provisional Siberian governments. After the Kolchak coup d'état in Omsk in November 1918, the Government of Ural was disbanded.

In July 1919, in the course of the Yekaterinburg offense, Yekaterinburg and the surrounding areas were recaptured by the Red Army forces under command of Vasily Shorin . On the July 15th, the Perm Governorate was split by the Soviets and the east, for the first time in history, became a separate region, the Yekaterinburg Governorate. It was soon abolished and replaced by the Ural Oblast (1923-1934).

In the 1930s many industrial enterprises were established and built with the help of forced labour. [16] Local industry received another impetus during World War II, when important producing facilities were relocated here from the European part of Russia to safeguard them from the advancing Germans (for example, IMZ-Ural , Kamensk-Uralsky Metallurgical Works ). In the postwar period much of the region was off-limits to foreigners. It was over Sverdlovsk that the American U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960, while on a reconnaissance mission.

In 1979, there was an anthrax outbreak caused by an accident in a facility to develop biological weapons.

In 1993, Governor Eduard Rossel responded to perceived economic inequality by attempting to create a " Ural Republic ." Sverdlovsk led the "Urals Five" ( Kurgan Oblast , Orenburg Oblast , Perm Krai , Chelyabinsk Oblast and Sverdlovsk) in a call for greater regional power. They argued that the oblasts deserved as much power as the ethnic homeland republics . The Urals Republic Constitution went into effect on October 27, 1993. Then Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Urals Republic and the Sverdlovsk Parliament 10 days later (on November 9).

Population : 4,268,998   ( 2021 Census ) ; [5] 4,297,747   ( 2010 Russian census ) ; [17] 4,486,214   ( 2002 Census ) ; [18] 4,716,768   ( 1989 Soviet census ) . [19]

Vital statistics for 2022: [20] [21]

• Births: 39,958 (9.4 per 1,000)
• Deaths: 59,316 (13.9 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022): [22] 1.56 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021): [23] Total — 68.79 years (male   — 63.72, female   — 73.80)

There were twenty-one recognized ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each in the oblast. Residents identified themselves as belonging to a total of 148 different ethnic groups, including: [17]

• 3,684,843 Russians (90.6%);
• 143,803 Tatars (3.5%);
• 35,563 Ukrainians (0.9%);
• 31,183 Bashkirs (0.8%);
• 23,801 Mari (0.6%);
• 14,914 Germans (0.4%);
• 14,215 Azerbaijanis (0.3%);
• 13,789 Udmurts (0.3%);
• 11,670 Belarusians (0.3%);
• 11,510 Chuvash (0.26%);
• 11,501 Armenians (0.3%);
• 11,138 Tajiks (0.3%);
• 9,702 Mordovians (0.22%);
• 9,358 Uzbeks (0.2%);

232,978 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. [24]

Christianity is the largest religion in Sverdlovsk Oblast. According to a 2012 survey [25] 43% of the population of Sverdlovsk Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church , 5% are nondenominational Christians (excluding Protestant churches), 3% are Muslims , 2% are Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any Church or are members of other Orthodox churches , 1% are adherents of the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery), and 0.3% are adherents of forms of Hinduism ( Vedism , Krishnaism or Tantrism ). In addition, 36% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", and 9.7% is atheist . [25]

The most important institutions of higher education include Ural Federal University , Ural State Medical University , Ural State University of Economics , Ural State Law University , Ural State Mining University and Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts , all located in the capital Yekaterinburg.

The oblast's Charter, adopted on 17 December 1994, with subsequent amendments, establishes the oblast government. The Governor is the chief executive, who appoints the Government, consisting of ministries and departments. The Chairman of the Government, commonly referred to as the Prime Minister, is appointed with the consent of the lower house of the legislature , a process similar to the appointment of the federal Prime Minister . But the Governor cannot nominate the same candidate more than twice, yet he/she can dismiss the house after three failed attempts to appoint the Premier. [ needs update ]

The Legislative Assembly is the regional parliament of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Until 2011, it was a bicameral legislature consisting of the Oblast Duma, the lower house , and the House of Representatives, the upper house . [27] Before the reform, members of the legislature served four-year terms with half of the Duma re-elected every two years. The Duma (28   members) was elected in party lists. The 21   members of the House of Representatives were elected in single-seat districts in a first-past-the-post system. The Legislative Assembly was the first bicameral legislature outside an autonomous republic, and the first regional legislature in Russia to elect members based on both party lists and single-seat districts . As of 2021, the Legislative Assembly is a unicameral legislature with a total of 50 seats, with half of the members elected by single-mandate constituencies and the other half elected in party lists for five-year terms. [28] [29]

Compliance with the Charter is enforced by the Charter Court. The existence of such regional courts in Russia, formed and functioning outside the federal judiciary, although challenged, has been upheld and persisted successfully in most constituent members of the Federation where they were established.

Until President Putin 's reforms of 2004, the Governor was elected by direct vote for terms of four years. Eduard Rossel has been the only elected governor (first elected governor for an oblast in Russia) since 1995 (appointed in 1991 and dismissed in 1993 by President Yeltsin ), re-elected in 1999 and 2003.

Since 2012, the oblast's Governor is Yevgeny Kuyvashev .

In the 1990s, the Oblast's population was distinguished by relatively high support for parties and candidates of the right and democratic persuasion. In the 1996 presidential election, Boris Yeltsin , a native of the region who lived in Sverdlovsk until the 1980s, won over 70% of the vote. In the regional elections in 2010 in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, United Russia received minimal support relative to other regions - only 39.79% of votes. [30]

Even though it could do with modernizing, the region's industries are quite diverse. 12% of Russia's iron and steel industry is still concentrated in Sverdlovsk oblast. Iron and copper are mined and processed here, the logging industry and wood-processing are important, too.

The largest companies in the region include Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company , UralVagonZavod , Enel Russia , Nizhniy Tagil Iron and Steel Works , Federal Freight . [31]

Yekaterinburg is a prominent road, rail and air hub in the Ural region. As the economic slump subsided, several European airlines started or resumed flights to the city. These include Lufthansa , British Airways , CSA , Turkish Airlines , Austrian Airlines and Finnair . Malév Hungarian Airlines used to be among those carriers but they had to drop their flights to SVX ( IATA airport code for Sverdlovsk) after a few months.

The Alapaevsk narrow-gauge railway serves the communities around Alapayevsk .

• Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province , Vietnam
• Harbin , China
• Vladik Dzhabarov , Russian cyclist
• Andrey Fedyaev , Russian cosmonaut
• Yakov Sverdlov , a communist revolutionary after whom Sverdlovsk and subsequently Sverdlovsk Oblast were named.
• Church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary , a building of regional historical significance in Staropyshminsk village.

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Irbit is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located 203 kilometers (126 mi) from Yekaterinburg by train or 250 kilometers (160 mi) by car, on the right bank of the Nitsa. Population: 37,009 (2021 Census) ; 38,357 (2010 Russian census) ; 43,318 (2002 Census) ; 51,708 (1989 Soviet census) .

Alapayevsk is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Neyva and Alapaikha rivers. Population: 38,192 (2010 Russian census) ; 44,263 ; 50,060 ; 49,000 (1968).

Kushva is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located in the Ural Mountains near Yekaterinburg. Population: 30,167 (2010 Russian census) ; 35,555 (2002 Census) ; 43,096 (1989 Soviet census) .

Nizhniye Sergi is a town and the administrative center of Nizhneserginsky District in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on a rolling plain surrounded by the Ural Mountains, on the Serga River 120 kilometers (75 mi) from Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 10,336 (2010 Russian census) ; 12,567 (2002 Census) ; 14,938 (1989 Soviet census) .

Verkhnyaya Pyshma is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) north of Yekaterinburg. Population: 59,749 (2010 Russian census) ; 58,016 (2002 Census) ; 53,102 (1989 Soviet census) .

Novouralsk is a closed town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains, about 70 kilometers (43 mi) north of Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 85,522 (2010 Russian census) ; 95,414 (2002 Census) .

Krasnoufimsk is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Ufa River, 224 kilometers (139 mi) from Yekaterinburg. Population: 39,765 (2010 Russian census) ; 43,595 (2002 Census) ; 45,618 (1989 Soviet census) .

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Gornozavodsky District is an administrative district (raion) of Perm Krai, Russia; one of the thirty-three in the krai. Municipally, it is incorporated as Gornozavodsky Municipal District . It is located on the western slopes of the Ural Mountains in the east of the krai. The area of the district is 7,057 square kilometers (2,725 sq mi). Its administrative center is the town of Gornozavodsk. Population: 26,044 (2010 Russian census) ; 30,172 (2002 Census) ; 38,004 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Gornozavodsk accounts for 46.3% of the district's total population.

Garinsky District is an administrative district (raion), one of the thirty in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Garinsky Urban Okrug . The area of the district is 16,770 square kilometers (6,470 sq mi). Its administrative center is the urban locality of Gari. Population: 4,904 ; 7,832 (2002 Census) ; 9,381 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Gari accounts for 50.4% of the district's total population. The main point of historical interest is the former town of Pelym, which was one of the first Russian settlements east of the Urals, marking the eastern terminus of the Cherdyn Road from Europe to Siberia.

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Isetsky District is an administrative district (raion), one of the twenty-two in Tyumen Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Isetsky Municipal District . It is located in the west of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,751 square kilometers (1,062 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Isetskoye. Population: 26,061 ; 26,565 (2002 Census) ; 25,862 (1989 Soviet census) . The population of Isetskoye accounts for 28.7% of the district's total population.

Bisert is an urban locality in Nizhneserginsky District of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Population: 10,233 (2010 Russian census) ; 11,262 (2002 Census) ; 12,646 (1989 Soviet census) .

• ↑ Президент Российской Федерации.   Указ   №849   от   13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу   13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", No.   20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation.   Decree   # 849   of   May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District . Effective as of   May 13, 2000.).
• ↑ Госстандарт Российской Федерации.   №ОК 024-95   27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2.   Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. ( Gosstandart of the Russian Federation.   # OK 024-95   December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2.   Economic Regions , as amended by the Amendment   # 5/2001 OKER. ).
• ↑ Official website of the Governor of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Alexander Sergeyevich Misharin (in Russian)
• 1 2 3 Russian Federal State Statistics Service. Всероссийская перепись населения 2020 года. Том 1 [ 2020 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1 ] (XLS) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service .
• ↑ "26. Численность постоянного населения Российской Федерации по муниципальным образованиям на 1 января 2018 года" . Federal State Statistics Service . Retrieved 23 January 2019 .
• ↑ "Об исчислении времени" . Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). 3 June 2011 . Retrieved 19 January 2019 .
• ↑ Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article   68.1 of the Constitution of Russia .
• ↑ "Russia: Impact of Climate Change to 2030" (PDF) . Retrieved 25 April 2023 .
• ↑ Сериков Ю. Б. Новые находки раннего палеолита в Среднем Зауралье // Ранний палеолит Евразии: новые открытия // Материалы Международной конференции, Краснодар – Темрюк, 1–6 сентября 2008 г.
• ↑ Сериков Ю. Б. Следы раннего палеолита на территории Среднего Зауралья // Вестник археологии, антропологии и этнографии, 2015 № 4 (31)
• 1 2 Объекты культурного наследия Свердловской области (список)
• ↑ Сальников К. В. Древнейшие памятники истории Урала , 1952.
• ↑ Khimiya i Zhizn , 9, 1974, p. 80
• ↑ Писаницы Урала (in Russian). Ural.ru . Retrieved 26 December 2010 .
• ↑ V.A. Kravchenko: I chose freedom (1946)
• 1 2 Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том   1 [ 2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol.   1 ] . Всероссийская перепись населения 2010   года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service .
• ↑ Federal State Statistics Service (21 May 2004). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов   – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3   тысячи и более человек [ Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000 ] (XLS) . Всероссийская перепись населения 2002   года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian).
• ↑ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989   г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [ All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers ] . Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989   года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 – via Demoscope Weekly .
• ↑ "Information on the number of registered births, deaths, marriages and divorces for January to December 2022" . ROSSTAT . Archived from the original on 2 March 2023 . Retrieved 21 February 2023 .
• ↑ "Birth rate, mortality rate, natural increase, marriage rate, divorce rate for January to December 2022" . ROSSTAT . Archived from the original on 2 March 2023 . Retrieved 21 February 2023 .
• ↑ Суммарный коэффициент рождаемости [ Total fertility rate ] . Russian Federal State Statistics Service (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLSX) on 10 August 2023 . Retrieved 10 August 2023 .
• ↑ "Демографический ежегодник России" [ The Demographic Yearbook of Russia ] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (Rosstat) . Retrieved 1 June 2022 .
• ↑ "ВПН-2010" . www.perepis-2010.ru .
• 1 2 3 "Arena: Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia" . Sreda, 2012.
• ↑ 2012 Arena Atlas Religion Maps . "Ogonek", № 34 (5243), 27/08/2012. Retrieved 21/04/2017. Archived .
• ↑ Formation of the legislative body of Sverdlovsk Oblast , old.zsso.ru
• ↑ General information , zsso.ru
• ↑ "Свердловская область" . council.gov.ru .
• ↑ "Результат единороссов по Свердловской области был самым худшим для партии власти" [ The result of United Russia in the Sverdlovsk region was the worst for the ruling party ] . Archived from the original on 10 June 2010 . Retrieved 2 January 2011 .
• ↑ "Sverdlovsk region Industries" . investinregions.ru . Retrieved 7 November 2018 .
• Sverdlovsk Oblast on Facebook
• Investment portal of Sverdlovsk Oblast
• (in Russian) Official website of the Government of Sverdlovsk Oblast

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NSF 101: EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program

You've likely heard of the U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) , which helps fund graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, opening doors to career paths in academia, industry and beyond. In May 2024, NSF released a new program, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Graduate Fellowship Program (EGFP) , which supports the pool of exceptionally talented individuals who received Honorable Mention from  GRFP within the last three years.

The EGFP awards fund graduate fellowships to new or continuing students, up to $37,000 per student annually, for up to three years of stipends and cost-of-education allowance. The program is supported by each of the eight NSF directorates and the Office of Integrative Activities, with specific topical areas considered for funding by each participating organization. Read the solicitation for details on these topic areas.

• Proposals to EGFP should be submitted by an academic institution within an eligible EPSCoR jurisdiction . 
• Institutions receiving EGFP awards must use the NSF Education and Training Application (ETAP) system to recruit prospective fellows. Institutions will recruit potential fellows from the pool of highly qualified individuals who received Honorable Mention recognition from NSF GRFP no more than three years before the proposal submission deadline.
• Students interested in matching with a potential host institution for EGFP should complete their application in ETAP. To be considered for EGFP, they must have received an Honorable Mention from GRFP. 

Here are a few tips for those interested in applying: 

• Read the solicitation ( NSF 24-588 ) carefully. It is a comprehensive list of instructions that outlines exactly what you need to do to have a successful application.
• Access ETAP . This is required for both the principal investigator and the prospective fellow . 
• Principal Investigators will create EGFP Opportunities in ETAP for prospective fellows to apply to. 
• Prospective fellows can apply to graduate programs that differ from those listed as a field or subfield in their previous GRFP application. However, once enrolled, fellows must remain in a degree program in the same discipline as when admitted by the institution. 

If you have questions about the application process or the program, please email [email protected] .

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