We are pleased to announce that Rachael Ren and Joia Zhang have received the Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding students early in their careers who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education at accredited U.S. institutions. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend.
Rachael Ren is currently a senior undergraduate student majoring in Statistics and minoring in Environmental Studies. She has been involved in activities and groups related to her field of study, such as being a statistics tutor in the UW Statistics Tutor & Study Center and a member of the UW Statistics and Probability Association (SPA) as a facilitator for organizing technical workshops and social events. In addition to SPA, Ren has been involved in the Directed Reading Program (DRP). It was when she was under the mentorship of Anna Neufeld that her interest was sparked in seeking statistics-related research opportunities, such as Polymath Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and the Varanasi Fellowship at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Ren is expected to graduate by the end of Spring quarter 2023. She plans to use her award to help fund her studies in the Statistics Ph.D. program at the University of Texas in Austin, Texas starting in Autumn 2023.
“Receiving the GRF has been an incredible honor,” says Ren, “I’d like to thank my statistics professors at UW, research mentors, and friends and family for supporting me throughout my undergraduate journey. In particular, I’d like to give a big thank you to my NOAA mentor, Kiva Oken, for encouraging me to apply for the fellowship and providing me with constructive feedback throughout the application process. Lastly, I am grateful to the Statistics Department for providing me with numerous opportunities, such as the Varanasi Fellowship at NOAA and the SPA DRP, which have helped me gain meaningful research skills and experiences in preparation for graduate school and beyond.”
Joia Zhang is currently a senior undergraduate student majoring in Statistics. She has been involved in activities and groups related to her field of study, such as volunteering for the UW Undergraduate Research Program (URP) to present and advocate for undergraduate research, assisting with the 2023 ASA DataFest, being editor of the Statistics Department’s undergraduate newsletter Student’s T-time, and being a core member of SPA. This year, she has been the co-president of SPA and has organized numerous workshops pertaining to professional development and NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). Zhang has had several extraordinary accomplishments throughout her undergraduate career. Some of those accomplishments include being invited to multiple academic conferences, including the International Conference on Advances in Interdisciplinary Statistics and Combinatorics where she participated in a competition among undergraduates and won the first place presentation award in 2021. She was also selected by REU to conduct research directly with professors at various universities across the U.S. for three consecutive summers (2021-2023). One summer resulted in a peer-review journal being published. This summer (through REU), Zhang will intern for the Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS) at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is expected to graduate by the end of Spring quarter 2023. Zhang will be joining the Statistics Ph.D. program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York starting in Autumn 2023.
“The NSF GRFP is an inspiring and motivating award to continue my research, especially to connect statistics with machine learning,” says Zhang. “I’m excited for this next chapter and grateful for the journey. I’m incredibly grateful for all my mentors, professors, alma mater University of Washington, Department of Statistics, friends, and family that have made my undergraduate so educational and enjoyable. The NSF GRFP makes me think of both the past and the future.”
Congratulations to Rachael and Joia on this fine achievement!
Rachael Ren and Joia Zhang receive NSF GRFP Award
