Merit Award for Current Doctoral Students
Deadlines: April 8. (In the event that a deadline falls upon a weekend or a university holiday, that deadline will move to the first workday following the posted date.)
Award Amount: $1,500.
Directions: Department chairs submit application materials electronically in digital form to the WiSE program office at wiseprog@usc.edu.
The Merit Award for Current Doctoral Students is offered to current Ph.D. students at USC who demonstrate exceptional work in their field. Two candidates will be chosen from the USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and two from the Viterbi School of Engineering. Candidates are nominated by the faculty. Each one-year WiSE Fellowship carries a stipend of $1,500. To be eligible for the Merit Awards students must plan to be enrolled full-time for both the upcoming Fall and Spring semesters, be in at least their fourth year of study or passed their qualifying exams, and be funded by a 50%-time research assistantship, teaching assistantship, or fellowship during that period. Expected date of graduation should not be earlier than the spring semester.
Purpose:
The purpose of the WiSE Merit Award is to provide advanced doctoral students with an opportunity to be recognized for their achievements. Surveys have shown that the attrition rate of female doctoral students is significantly higher than that of male doctoral students. The WiSE Program hopes this fellowship will provide support and motivation to students on an academic trajectory who demonstrate dedication to increasing the representation of women in science and engineering.
Selection Criteria:
The WiSE Committee will evaluate the excellence of the candidate’s research, the trajectory of improvement, and any other personal/professional attributes that demonstrate how the Merit Award may encourage the candidate to pursue a career in science and engineering.
Goal: The primary goal of the WiSE Merit Award for Current Doctoral Students is to encourage outstanding doctoral students at USC to pursue careers in science and engineering, thereby increasing the representation of women in these fields. The WiSE Program awards up to four WiSE Merit Awards (two in USC Dornsife and two in the Viterbi School of Engineering) each year to recognize exceptional research. Each WiSE Merit Award carries a one-year stipend of $1,500, during which time the student must be full-time, in residence at USC. This award is not to be used in lieu of any other funding.
Eligibility: Two Awards may be given to Ph.D. students in USC Dornsife and two in the Viterbi School of Engineering. In order to be eligible for a WiSE Merit Award, the students must be enrolled full-time in the upcoming Fall and Spring semesters, be in at least their fourth year of study or passed their qualifying exams, and be funded by a 50%-time research assistantship, teaching assistantship, or fellowship during that period. Expected date of graduation should not be earlier than the Spring semester. The student must be nominated by their faculty advisor based on the quality of their doctoral research. Any faculty member (research or tenure track) with Ph.D. supervision privileges is eligible to nominate a student. Research faculty without these privileges may also nominate students together with a tenure-track member in an advisory role. Nominations by faculty should be sent to their department chair.
Nomination Process: Each WiSE-eligible department may nominate candidates based on the size of the department or section’s PhD Program, as follows:
- departments/sections with 1-75 students: max of 1 nomination
- departments/sections with 76-175 students: max of 2 nominations
- departments/sections with > 175 students: max of 3 nominations
ranked in order by emailing electronic nomination materials to the WiSE Program office wiseprog@usc.edu. The following information must be submitted for each nominee:
- A letter of application. Please download the following application form, PhD Merit Award Application Form, fill it out and email it to wiseprog@usc.edu.
- A letter of recommendation from the research advisor which estimates the expected date of defense of the dissertation, details the exceptional work of the student, and explains how the WiSE Merit Award will serve to increase the representation of women in science and engineering.
- A written one-page statement by the candidate, describing their current research accomplishments and estimating their expected date of completion.
- The candidate’s current CV listing accomplishments and publications
- A brief cover letter of nomination by the department chair ranking the candidates and explaining how the candidates achievements are compared to those of other students in the department.
2023-2024
- Michella Rustom, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Ruying Liu, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2022-2023
- Annastasia Haynie, Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife
- Kiersten Formoso, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Xi Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Alessandra Bonazzi, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2021-2022
- Margaret Sayre, Biological Sciences, Integrated and Evolutionary Biology, USC Dornsife
- Lanja Karadaghi, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Jiaoyang Li, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Jingbo Wang, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2020-2021
- Abby Lunstrum, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Cong Liu, Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife
- Ke Xu, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Fatemeh Sadat Zebarjad, Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2019-2020
- Andrea Suarez, Biological Sciences, Human and Evolutionary Biology, USC Dornsife
- Anastasiia Sadybekov, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Qianhui (Jess) Wu, Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Allyson McGaughey, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Yixue Zhao, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2018-2019
- Laura Zinke, Biological Sciences, Marine and Environmental Biology, USC Dornsife
- Katie Ardill, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Daeun Kim, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Sahar Bakhshian, Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2017-2018
- Laura Zinke, Marine and Environmental Biology, USC Dornsife
- Katie Ardill, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Daeun Kim, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Sahar Bakhshian, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2016-2017
- Ying-Chu Chen, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Sarah Hu, Marine and Environmental Biology, USC Dornsife
- Angelica Cobo, Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Elaine Short, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Barbara Ratschbacher, Earth Sciences (Honorable Mention), USC Dornsife
2015-2016
- Paulina Pindedo-Gonzalez, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Yamani Jangir, Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife
- Thanh Nguyen, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Theodora Chaspari, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2014-2015
- Ana Carolinas Dantas Machado, Molecular and Computational Biology, USC Dornsife
- Jennifer Shitanishi, Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife
- Saptaparna Das, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Anastasia Kadina, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Sylvia Dee, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Fei Fang, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Xin Fang, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Nastaran Bassam Zadeh, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Katelyn Swift-Spong, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Xue Lin, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Hyeran Jeon, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Elham Hemmat Abiri, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2013-2014
- Yadira Ibarra, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Laura Loyola, Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Chiara Mazzasette, Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Erika Lippoldt, Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Meghan Gupta, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Irene Vidyanti, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Angela Lee, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Sadaf Soleymani, Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Yarong Liu, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
2012-2013
- Jessica Harel, Biological Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Beate Burkhart, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Angeliki Metallinou, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Winnie Kam, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2011-2012
- Shannon Howell, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Daisy Mak, Physics, USC Dornsife
- Ozgun Bursalioglu Yilmaz, Electrical Engineering – Systems, Viterbi School of Engineering (declined)
- Neelaski Hudda, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Yi Gai, Electrical Engineering – Systems, Viterbi School of Engineering
2010-2011
- Whitney Behr, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Mihaela Ignatova, Mathematics, USC Dornsife
- Sara Abedi, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Joyita Dutta, Electrical Engineering – Systems, Viterbi School of Engineering
2009-2010
- Anna Popova, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Neta Wechsler, Earth Sciences, USC Dornsife
- Rosa HoMan Chan, Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Jessi Hao Chen, Electrical Engineering – Electrophysics, Viterbi School of Engineering
2008-2009
- Larryn Peterson, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Laura Barge, Earth Science, USC Dornsife
- Jo-Anne Ting, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Hsu-Lei Lee, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2007-2008
- Andrea Jedwab, Mathematics, USC Dornsife
- Frances Cooper, Earth Science, USC Dornsife
- Sameera Poduri, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Zhihong (Iris) Shen, Industrial & Sytems Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering
2006-2007
- Catherine Powers, Earth Science, Dornsife
- Shamila Gunatilleke, Chemistry, USC Dornsife
- Vidhyua Navalpakkam, Computer Science, Viterbi School of Engineering
- Ling Zhuo, Electrical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering