Two Ph.D. students in the College of Science have been selected for the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSFGRF). They are among 10 Oregon State University students to receive the NSFGRF award this year. Kristofer Bauer and Cheyenne Jarman, both first year doctoral students in the Department of Integrative Biology, have received the NSF award to support their research in the fields of marine science, evolution and ecosystem management.
College of Science alumna Lorraine Waianuhea (Biology ’18), currently a research assistant at the San Diego Zoo Global, has also received the 2021 NSF award.
The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at US institutions. In 2021, NSF offered a total of 2,074 awards to students from a competitive pool of applicants from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution.
As a NSF Fellow, Bauer will investigate how marine invertebrates may be adapting to climate change, specifically to low oxygen conditions known as “hypoxia.” Since 2002, hypoxia or oxygen-depleted waters have been a recurrent condition off the Oregon coast each summer killing crabs, fishes and other marine life.
In the lab of his advisor Felipe Barreto, Bauer studies how organisms like copepods, small crustaceans, adjust to low oxygen environments and the effects of hypoxia on evolution and genetic variations among a species as they adapt in response to changing climatic conditions.