The Department of Biological Sciences had four affiliated students offered a Graduate Research Fellowship on behalf of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF announced recipients of the 2026 Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards on April 13. 

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship was awarded to 2,500 students nationwide from an applicant pool of nearly 14,000 applicants. The fellowship program provides three years of financial support to students who “have demonstrated potential for significant achievements in research,” according to the press release.

Learn more about the recipients below.

Kenzie Cromer

Kenzie Cromer graduated from NC State in 2023 with a degree in Biological Sciences. As an undergraduate student, she had the opportunity to do research with several different professors, including Dr. John Meitzen, Dr. Lisa Paciulli, and Dr. Terry Gates.

“[They] were integral teachers and mentors,” Cromer said. “I wouldn’t be a scientist today without their support.”

Now a PhD student at Duke University, Cromer works with Dr. Susan Alberts in the Alberts Lab. Her research focuses on the Amboseli Baboon Research Project, one of the longest ongoing studies of wild primates in the world. As part of the research, she analyzes behavioral, demographic, and hormonal data collected from groups of yellow baboons in southern Kenya, which helps her to understand the evolutionary life-histories of baboons.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program will help fund her research on sex differences in prenatal stress, specifically if males are more vulnerable than females to prenatal and early-life stressors in wild and captive populations of primates. Based on this research, she’ll also explore what this can tell us about human health. 

Louise Winter

Louise Winter is currently a senior at NC State studying Biological Sciences with double minors in Evolutionary Biology and Art and Design. She has been working in the Hartstone-Rose Comparative Anatomy and Functional Morphology Lab for over two years, where she has researched variation in muscle architecture across extant primates, osteological correlates for masticatory muscles in extinct primates, and the masticatory morphology of extinct subfossil lemurs. 

“I am so lucky to have been able to build such a strong network of professors, mentors, labmates and friends during my time at NC State,” Winter said. “I am deeply grateful for their investment in me and my passions. None of my accomplishments would have been possible without their unwavering guidance, encouragement, and enthusiasm.”

Winter’s research focuses on the morphological diversity of extinct primates, specifically examining how environmental and ecological pressures framed their anatomical adaptations. She will be continuing this work as a PhD student in the Mammalian Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she will be researching the initial divergence and diversification of early primates following the K-Pg mass extinction.

“It is an absolute honor to receive this fellowship especially as an early-career scientist,” Winter said. “I am grateful that the NSF sees potential in me and my future research endeavors, and I look forward to utilizing the opportunities this award provides to contribute to the field of mammalian paleontology.”

Rebecca Veronika Olson

Rebecca Veronika Olson graduated from NC State in 2024 with a degree in Zoology and conducted three years of undergraduate research in the Paciulli Lemur Behavior Lab. 

During her time with the Department of Biological Sciences, she was motivated by the growing focus on maternal mental health, and spearheaded an independent study on maternal anxiety in aye-aye mother using video footage from the Duke Lemur Center. 

“I found that repetitive, anxious behaviors increased around the time of birth, supporting the hypothesis that these behaviors may be adaptive by enhancing vigilance in stressful environments,” Olson said. “Given the lack of existing research on aye-aye maternal behavior, this work fills an important gap and provides insights that may inform animal welfare and conservation efforts.”

Olson is now a Lab and Research Technician in the Newman Mitochondria Lab at the University of Virginia. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship will help fund her research on the mechanisms of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) release during viral infection, which initiates immune signaling. Her proposed research aims to elucidate the role and regulation of a key endosomal protein in mt DNA release, and uncover critical components of the novel, vesicle-mediated mtDNA exit pathway. 

“Because mtDNA release has been linked to a range of inflammatory diseases, this work has both fundamental biological significance in cell communication and mitochondrial biology and the potential to inform efforts to mitigate mtDNA-related diseases,” Olson said.

Blair Blakeney

Blair Blakeney is an incoming PhD student at NC State who will be joining the Genetics and Genomics program this fall as a member of the Genetics and Genomics Scholars program, specifically working with Dr. Caiti Heil. She plans to study the evolution of recombination using a yeast model, combining lab experiments with computational simulations to test how selection on other traits can indirectly promote high recombination rates.