CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Three University of Illinois graduate students have been awarded International Student Research Fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Tolulope Agunbiade of Lagos, Nigeria; Junqi Li, of Singapore; and Maxim Prigozhin, of Samara, Russia, have each been awarded $43,000 per year for three years. The prestigious fellowship is open to international students pursuing a doctoral degree in biomedical or other related sciences.
Nearly 400 students nationwide applied for the fellowship this year, with only 50 applicants receiving the award. The fellowship is one of the few fellowships nationwide designed exclusively for international students.
“There are very few graduate fellowships of this caliber available to international students, so HHMI is leading the way in terms of providing much-needed support and recognition for this critical segment of our graduate population,” said Ken Vickery, the director of external fellowships in the U. of I. Graduate College.
Agunbiade, an entomology student, is conducting research on the application of genomic tools in the study of the population genetics of cowpea pests in West Africa.
Li, studying chemistry, is researching the automated synthesis of small molecules, in particular developing a building block approach to asymmetric synthesis.
Prigozhin, also a chemistry student, is completing research on prion protein folding and transient aggregate formation studied by very fast pressure drops.
“Given the stature of the HHMI awards, Illinois’ three recipients have proven themselves as ranking among the top young biomedical researchers worldwide,” Vickery said.
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