Six Clemson students and alumnus awarded prestigious graduate research fellowships

Five Clemson University students and one recent alumnus were recently recognized with the country’s most prestigious STEM-focused graduate research fellowship, awarded annually through the National Science Foundation (NSF). Three students also received Honorable mentions.

Clemson’s dedication to research fulfills our land-grant mission and supports the University’s strategic vision to transform lives in South Carolina and beyond while building economic prosperity. Our students’ selection for prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships bears witness to that commitment. We are proud of their accomplishments and look forward to their achievements in the future.

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert H. Jones

The NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship program helps ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the country’s scientific and engineering workforce by supporting outstanding students pursuing research-based graduate degrees at accredited United States institutions.

Clemson’s recipients were selected from more than 12,000 applications. They each receive a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 and a $16,000 cost-of-education allowance, which is paid to the University to cover their tuition and fees. They also receive access to expanded opportunities for professional development.

Past graduate research fellowship recipients have become leaders in their respective fields, with 42 program alumni becoming Nobel laureates and more than 450 becoming National Academy of Sciences members.

Clemson Student GRF Recipients

Virginia (Gracie) Dellinger (‘24)

Gracie Dellinger, an Honors student from McClellanville, South Carolina, is a genetics and microbiology double major with a biochemistry minor and concentration in biomedicine. Dellinger has been working with Associate Professor Kimberly Paul in Clemson University’s Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC) since the summer after her junior year of high school. Their research focuses on the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness, a disease that can be fatal if left untreated. So far, they have shared their findings at academic conferences at Clemson and the University of Georgia.

Last summer, Dellinger also participated in an NSF-funded Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) at UNC-Chapel Hill. This full-time position allowed her to explore different adaptations of an intestinal pathogen responsible for a hospital-acquired disease called C. difficile infection and to present her findings to UNC medical school students. After she graduates from Clemson, Dellinger will attend Duke University to obtain a Ph.D. in molecular genetics and microbiology.

Annika DeVol (’24)

Annika DeVol is a materials science and engineering major with a chemistry minor from Central, South Carolina. Her research in Endowed Chair and Professor Rajenda Bordia’s research group explores the connection between material properties and performance, such as how heat can impact the structural integrity of a material, which she’s explored in lab environments both on and off campus. DeVol’s work has brought her several awards, including an Astronaut scholarship in 2023 and recognition as an outstanding student at the departmental and college levels.

By the time she graduates, DeVol will have written two research reports, presented a poster at an Oak Ridge National Laboratory symposium, given two presentations to industry research engineers and presented at the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s Annual Innovators Week conference. In addition to her research, she has held several leadership positions in campus and professional societies, supporting the next generation of scientists. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. at the Materials Department of the University of California Santa Barbara, working with high-temperature ceramic composites and coatings for turbine engine applications.

Lillian (Lily) Margeson (’24)

Lily Margeson is an environmental and natural resources major, with an emphasis on conservation biology, from Tega Cay, South Carolina. Her research explores how a beetle grub’s habitat or taxonomic family can impact its surface microbiome. Margeson has conducted her research in Assistant Professor Sharon Bewick’s multiscale ecology and evolution lab. They are currently finalizing a paper about the Zoraptera (angel insect) microbiome, which will be published in an industry journal. They are also embarking on a second round of data analysis exploring the ecology-versus-phylogeny of leafhopper insects, specifically the relationships between microbiome, host plant and phylogeny in leafhoppers from Purchase Knob in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

A class on immature insects inspired Margeson’s current research focus, which she says is not often studied in the terrestrial insect field. When she’s not researching insects, Margeson works in TV production for Clemson Athletics and plans to continue that line of work while pursuing a Ph.D. in entomology at Texas A&M University. 

Joshua Murray

Joshua Murray is an automotive engineering graduate student from Apex, North Carolina, exploring renewable fuels and developing emissions reduction strategies for internal combustion engines on the University’s International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) campus. He has also conducted his research through a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grant at North Carolina State University, followed by internships at manufacturers in North Carolina. As an undergraduate student, Murray was also part of a team of students from the U.S., Japan and United Arab Emirates (UAE) that invented an award-winning design for a mask, called Chatterbox, that allows a person to have a private, online conversation while sitting in a crowded room.

Murray is also an active volunteer, serving as an engineering tutor, academic success coach and admissions ambassador while working towards his undergraduate degree. After Murray finishes his master’s degree, he plans to continue working with CU-ICAR researchers as he completes a Ph.D. focused on engine research and coursework.

Kayleigh Trumbull (’24)

Kayleigh Trumbull from Chapin, South Carolina, is an Honors student and chemical engineering major who focuses on ways to facilitate peripheral nerve regeneration post-injury, work Trumbull started with Endowed Associate Professor Jessica Larsen’s research lab the summer after her first year on campus. As a sophomore, Trumbull formulated a promising post-injury nerve regeneration approach, which she later worked on collaboratively with Jeffrey Twiss at the University of South Carolina to determine how it could be applied to patients. Last summer, she participated in a REU at the University of Florida, where she focused on creating silk sponges as a platform for developing an in vitro skeletal muscle tissue model. 

Trumbull has presented posters of her work at several research symposiums and industry conferences. She has also mentored other students since high school and trained others, including graduate students, in the Larsen lab. Trumbull will be pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Northwestern University in the fall. 

Clemson Alumni GRF Recipients

Michael Smith (’22)

Michael Smith from Columbia, South Carolina, graduated from Clemson with a degree in biosystems engineering and applied for a Graduate Research Fellowship as an alumnus. He is looking for ways to turn waste into something that can benefit society instead of burdening it. Smith’s excitement for this kind of research began in the Fall of 2020, when he started researching in Assistant Professor Diana Vanegas’ biosystems engineering lab group. In addition to his work on Clemson’s campus, Smith conducted research through a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant at Penn State and partnered with a local farm.

While at Clemson, Smith was involved in a STEM outreach program and worked for the Clemson Sustainability Commission, revamping the University’s sustainability action plan and designing a sustainability fellows program, which pairs students with a faculty member in their field. After graduating from Clemson, Smith worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic before starting a graduate degree in biological and agricultural engineering at the University of California, Davis, where he is exploring creative ways to use agricultural waste from the Central Valley in California. Next year, Smith plans to further explore an economic and environmental impact analysis of agricultural waste and renewable energy in California.

Alumni recipients who are pursuing graduate degrees at other institutions include:

• Sarah Fields (’22), a former physics major and Honors student, is now a Physics Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University.
• Danielle LaVigne (’23), a former genetics major and Honors student, is now a Ph.D. student at Washington University.
• Claudia Wong (’21), a former bioengineering major, Honors student and National Scholar, is now a Ph.D. student at Duke University.

Honorable Mentions

Students who received an Honorable Mention as undergraduates are eligible to apply for the Graduate Research Fellowship again as graduate students.

Grayson Cliff (’24), a National Scholar and Honors student majoring in mechanical engineering, is working to advance thermal management and generation through dynamic origami structures. Cliff plans to pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin this fall.

Marlee Johnson (’24, ’27) is a Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. student focusing on industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology. Johnson plans to continue researching teams in high-stress environments, such as in the military or athletics, with Associate Professor Marissa Shuffler.

Ashly Nussbaum (’28) is a Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. student who researches testing for a primed genomic architecture for rapid transcriptional responses to external stimuli in butterfly model organisms. Nussbaum plans to spend the summer collecting samples in southern Florida, proving her model before expanding into a population genetics study.

Alumni Honorable Mention recipients who are pursuing graduate degrees at other institutions are:

• Gerald Enverso (’22), a former microbiology major and Honors student, is now at the University of Georgia.
• Sam Holberg (’23), a former biosystems engineering major and Honors student, is now at North Carolina State University.