2024 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Awarded to QBioS Student

Congratulations to QBioS PhD student, Ryan Lowhorn, who was named as an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recipient for 2024!  The purpose of the NSF GRFP is to ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. GRFP seeks to broaden participation in science and engineering of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000.  

GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers, early in their careers. Applicants must be pursuing full-time research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education at accredited US institutions.

Ryan’s proposed doctoral research is entitled, “Deciphering Quorum Sensing: Bridging the Gap Between Single-Cell Dynamics and Collective Bacterial Behaviors.”  The research focuses on quorum sensing, a bacterial communication system that coordinates group behaviors. To better understand how multi-cellular bacterial behaviors emerge from individual cell contributions, he plans to study Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen that plays a key role in infections due to its quorum sensing activity. By exploring how bacteria communicate and respond to environmental conditions, this research aims to further understand the mechanisms governing collective bacterial behaviors, contributing to advances in controlling microbial behavior in both infections and synthetic biology.