First Year Graduate Student Sydney Petz Wins NSF GRFP

This past Sunday, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the recipients of their Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). This is a highly competitive and prestigious award granting the winners three years of funding during their PhD. Of the nearly 14,000 application that were submitted this round, only 2,500 students were awarded. The Astronomy and Astrophysics program is pleased to share that one of our own graduate students, Sydney Petz, has received this award.

Sydney is a first-year graduate student who came to us from Columbus, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Science in Astronomy from The Ohio State University. Currently, she is working with Dr. Adina Feinstien to investigate the compositions, formation mechanisms, and stellar properties of young sub-Neptunes around active host stars using transmission spectra from JWST. We are so excited to see what else Sydney accomplishes throughout her time at MSU. Congratulations Sydney!