$10,000 Doctoral Research Scholarship
AWIS’ Distinguished Doctoral Research Scholarship will award $10,000 to a pre-doctoral student in life sciences, physical sciences, behavioral sciences, mathematics, or engineering.
The 2025 AWIS Scholarship Program is now closed.
Applicants have been notified. Stay updated for the next cycle and sign up to receive notifications for 2026.
AWIS Distinguished Doctoral Research Scholarship
Scholarship Overview
Awarded to three AWIS members whose dissertation research project is judged likely to make important and original contributions to their field. This $10,000 award is intended for a pre-doctoral student in Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Behavioral Sciences, Mathematics or Engineering who is a member expecting to graduate within 2 years of the application deadline.
Scholarship Requirements
Applicants will need to provide:
- Professional Goals Essay addressing the following (500 – 1,500 words):
- Your background
- Career goals
- Impact of the work as it relates to STEM and the AWIS mission
- How this award will help meet your objectives and goals
- Resume/CV
- Research synopsis (500 words)
- Recommendation questionnaire from current professor, advisor, dissertation committee member or most recent employer
- Recommendation questionnaire from a past professor, past employer, colleague or other professional acquaintance
- Program acceptance letter (optional)
- Unofficial transcript
- Intended use of funds
Previous Scholarship Recipients
Shahzarin Khan
2024 Scholarship Recipient
Shahzarin Khan is a PhD candidate in Health Behavior at Indiana University Bloomington. Born and raised in India, her research focuses on the sexual health of South Asian women. Through her work, she aims to promote healthy sexual and romantic relationships for young people in South Asia. In her previous roles in India, she has worked in grant management, operations, and program monitoring on the themes of abortion, sexuality education, and gender-based violence. She has a multidisciplinary academic background with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, a master’s in economics from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani), and a postgraduate diploma in liberal arts from Ashoka University.
Uzezi Okinedo
2023 Scholarship Recipient
Uzezi Okinedo was born and raised in Nigeria. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research utilizes the natural genetic diversity in rice species to identify genetic factors that can improve rice grain quality. She employs techniques in genomics, transcriptomics, and computational biology to recognize genetic variants controlling various rice grain properties. Uzezi’s fellowship fund will be applied towards completing the final stage of her dissertation project which includes testing the grain quality of different rice types under heat stress to identify superior varieties. The fund will be used to pay for travel expenses to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines to carry out fieldwork.
Jessica Ramirez
2023 Scholarship Recipient
Jessica Ramirez is a Ph.D. candidate in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program at Rush University, where she is mentored by Dr. Animesh Barua, an expert in translational research on ovarian cancer. Her research focuses on aging and the development of ovarian cancer. As women age, their risk of ovarian cancer increases in part due to increasing chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Jessica aims to identify influential factors, biomarkers, or mechanisms that occur during aging in the ovaries and fimbriae, causing chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, which may prompt the formation of mutagenic DNA-adducts and epigenetic changes, influencing age-associated malignant transformation of ovarian cancer. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Biology at Loyola University Chicago and a Master of Science in Molecular Medicine at Drexel University.
Yasharah Raza
2023 Scholarship Recipient
Yasharah Raza is a PhD candidate in Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology, conducting her doctoral research at Stony Brook Medicine’s Cancer Center. Her translational cancer research focuses on new treatment options for Acute Erythroid Leukemia (one of the most aggressive subtypes of Acute Myeloid Leukemia) where patient survival is only 3 to 9 months on average. She also investigates how sphingolipids—named after the enigmatic sphinx—are involved in supporting both normal and cancerous red blood cells. Yasharah is passionate about mentorship and has served as mentor across multiple organizations including ATHENA by Women in STEM (ABWIS), Women in Science & Engineering (WISE), and Muslim Women’s Professional Network- New York (MWPN-NY). Based on her Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) service and advocacy, Yasharah was invited to join the NASA Astrophysics database of IDEA practitioners.
Mayson Whipple
2023 Scholarship Recipient
Mayson Whipple is a PhD candidate in the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science department at Michigan State University, where she is mentored by Dr. Robert C. Ferrier Jr. Mayson’s interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on drug addiction treatment – from developing novel opioid vaccines to exploring the societal conditions necessary to mitigate the opioid epidemic. In 2022 Mayson received a Fulbright/Luso-American Foundation Open Research award to continue her work developing effective delivery platforms for transdermal vaccination and studying the impact of drug policies on stigma surrounding drug use and addiction, hosted by Dr. Carla Portugal at NOVA School of Science and Technology – Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and GAT in Mouraria, a harm reduction organization for people who use drugs. Mayson received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from North Central College and Master of Science in Membrane Engineering from the NOVA School of Science and Technology – Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.
Maya C. Schumer
2022 Scholarship Recipient
Maya C. Schumer is a PhD candidate in neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she is mentored by Dr. Mary L. Phillips, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical Translational Science. Her research uses functional neuroimaging, meta-analysis, and machine learning to detect risk for Bipolar Disorder, with a focus on neural mechanisms underlying emotion-driven impulsivity that predispose young adults to mania, yielding neural markers that can aid earlier risk detection, improve diagnostic accuracy, and inform treatment. Maya is a recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a Society of Biological Psychiatry Predoctoral Scholar Travel Fellowship Award. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied how mindfulness meditation training impacts mental health outcomes. She now serves on the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Neuroscience
Sarah A. Berlinger
2021 Scholarship Recipient
Sarah A. Berlinger is a PhD candidate and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where she is co-advised by Professor Bryan D. McCloskey and Dr. Adam Z. Weber (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab). Her research focuses on understanding multi-component interactions between catalyst particles, polymers, and solvents in fuel-cell electrode precursor inks, and how these forces drive electrode microstructure formation. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University where she researched battery charging protocols for capacity recovery and bioelectrochemical fuel production pathways. Sarah is involved with Bay Area Scientists in Schools and mentors undergraduate researchers.
Featured Partners
Acknowledgements
Thank you to our featured partners for their support of AWIS and the AWIS Foundation Awards.
We would also like to thank the Scholarship Committee for the administration of these programs.
We are grateful for all AWIS donors and supporters for helping women in science and related STEM fields achieve their dreams and reach their full potential.
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