The National Science Foundation has awarded Graduate Research Fellowships to 13 University of Georgia students and alumni, including two Ecology Ph.D. students. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program provides master’s and doctoral students with up to $121,500 over a five-year period for research projects in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Nationally, the 2010 program awarded 2,000 fellowships and 2,026 honorable mentions from a pool of more than 12,000 applicants. Odum School of Ecology Fellows are: Carolyn Keogh, Tampa, Fla. Carolyn earned her undergraduate degree in biology and environmental studies at Emory University and is pursuing a doctorate in ecology at UGA. Her fellowship will support her research on the effects of reduced parasitism on the population dynamics of invasive marine invertebrates. Virginia Schutte, Morehead, Ky. Virginia is enrolled in the ecology doctoral program at UGA, focusing on the effects of nutrient pollution on mangrove ecosystems. In addition to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, Schutte also recently received fellowships from the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the National Estuarine Research Reserve System. “NSF Graduate Research Fellowships are highly competitive and prestigious,” said David Lee, UGA’s vice president for research. “It is a tribute to the quality of our students and programs that so many UGA students or alumni won these awards in the latest cycle.” “Reviewers are looking for the best and the brightest—those with the potential for leadership in their fields of study,” said Gisèle Muller-Parker, program director for the GRFP. Since the program’s inception in 1952, 30 Fellows have gone on to become Nobel Laureates.