{"id":108379,"date":"2026-04-21T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=108379"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:01:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:01:58","slug":"three-uri-students-awarded-prestigious-national-science-foundation-graduate-research-fellowships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/04\/three-uri-students-awarded-prestigious-national-science-foundation-graduate-research-fellowships\/","title":{"rendered":"Three 溏心vlog免费B站 students awarded prestigious National Science Foundation graduate research fellowships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2026 \u2013 Three students from the 溏心vlog免费B站 were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program<\/a> for the 2026-27 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Amirsadri and Colby Constantine, who earned bachelor\u2019s degrees in chemical engineering from 溏心vlog免费B站 last spring, and Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno, who graduated from 溏心vlog免费B站 in December 2024 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in marine biology, were among the 2,500 students chosen out of nearly 14,000 applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is one of the nation’s most prestigious fellowship programs, providing three years of financial support to graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to make significant contributions to scientific innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Amirsadri: proactive approach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Amirsadri \u201925had a penchant for seeking answers to challenging questions during his undergraduate studies at 溏心vlog免费B站. As Amirsadri\u2019s research mentor for two years, Ryan Poling-Skutvik, assistant professor of chemical, biomolecular, and materials engineering, and assistant professor of physics, appreciated his thirst for knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDavid was detailed-oriented, determined, and driven to conduct high-quality research,\u201d said Poling-Skutvik. \u201cHe was proactive and independent, constantly seeking out the fundamental physics and chemistry underlying his experiments by asking insightful and challenging questions or conducting thorough and deep literature reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After joining Poling-Skutvik\u2019s research group as a RI-INBRE Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in 2023, Amirsadri began an independent research project on synthesizing and characterizing the stability and structure of polymer-grafted gold nanoparticles as next-generation sensors for environmental and biological contaminants. His research resulted in a peer-reviewed article in 2025 in Macromolecules<\/em><\/a>. Amirsadri also presented his research at conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy experiences at 溏心vlog免费B站 were exceptional,\u201d said Amirsadri, who is from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. \u201cI learned how to conduct high-quality science and how to present my work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Amirsadri is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, where his research focuses on non-Newtonian fluid dynamics and elastic turbulence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While unsure if he wants to pursue a career in academia or industry, Amirsadri said he aspires to advance societal understanding of soft matter and complex fluids, contribute to research and development efforts aimed at improving the environment and human health, and utilize his technical training to influence and inform public policy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Colby Constantine conducted research in Assistant Professor Ryan Poling-Skutvik\u2019s lab at 溏心vlog免费B站. (Photo courtesy of Colby Constantine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Colby Constantine: applied research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Amirsadri, Colby Constantine\u201925 also joined Poling-Skutvik\u2019s research team through the SURF program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColby shadowed a graduate student to learn how to prepare and design a class of biomimetic materials known as polymer-linked emulsions,\u201d said Poling-Skutvik.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constantine then conducted independent experiments on nanoparticle transport through these materials to identify whether they produced quantitatively similar transport characteristics to those observed in biology. This provided Constantine with experience in optical microscopy and particle tracking algorithms. His research was published in two peer-reviewed journals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a productive year in Poling-Skutvik\u2019s lab, Constantine secured a competitive summer internship at the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., where he characterized peptides and small molecule formulations for oral delivery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, Constantine graduated magna cum laude from 溏心vlog免费B站 and is pursuing his Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis program enables me to extend the soft-matter and drug-delivery research foundation I developed at 溏心vlog免费B站 toward understanding how transport limitations, immune response, and bacterial clearance interact in chronic pulmonary infections,\u201d said Constantine, who is from Leicester, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constantine plans to return to the pharmaceutical industry after earning his doctorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy long-term goal is to improve pulmonary drug delivery and help engineer biologics and peptide therapies that can be administered orally rather than by injection, improving patient compliance and reducing barriers to global access,\u201d said Constantine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno: persistence pays off<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno scuba diving in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, where she conducted an internship. (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Soon after transferring to 溏心vlog免费B站 in the spring semester of her freshman year in 2021, Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno \u201924 was awarded a NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Hollings Scholar, Sinno conducted a fully funded 10-week internship in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, and one week in Guam. Using software for spatial modeling and statistical analysis, Sinno evaluated benthic damage and debris following a typhoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From September 2022 to December 2024, Sinno conducted research in Professor Susanne Menden-Deuer\u2019s Plankton Ecology Laboratory in the Graduate School of Oceanography<\/a>. She also completed three research cruises, totaling more than 21 days at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMs. Sinno is an enthusiastic student, who has acquired skills in a range of oceanographic and microbiological techniques that have prepared her well for cutting-edge research in many scientific disciplines,\u201d said Menden-Deuer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinno also presented research at conferences, did an independent study on microbial abundances in coral systems in Bermuda, and performed DNA extractions on marine microbes in Associate Professor Roxanne Beinart\u2019s lab at GSO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as Sinno accomplished at 溏心vlog免费B站, her path to graduate school was far from certain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to limited funds, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program was the only way I could afford graduate school,\u201d said Sinno, who will begin her pursuit of a Ph.D. in biology, with a concentration in ecological, environmental, and evolutionary biology, this fall at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After she completes her doctorate, Sinno would like to conduct post-doctoral research or pursue a research faculty position at a university.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 21, 2026 \u2013 Three students from the 溏心vlog免费B站 were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for the 2026-27 academic year. David Amirsadri and Colby Constantine, who earned bachelor\u2019s degrees in chemical engineering from 溏心vlog免费B站 last spring, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":108380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1907,25,5,1905,1915],"class_list":["post-108379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-academic-excellence","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-college-of-the-environment-and-life-sciences","tag-research","tag-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108384,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108379\/revisions\/108384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}