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Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research  ›  Doctoral Fellowships

Steinbrenner Doctoral Fellowships

The Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research Doctoral Fellowship Program in conjunction with the Presidential Graduate Fellowships provides competitively awarded grants to highly qualified second-year PhD students at Carnegie Mellon University who are involved in environmentally focused, interdisciplinary research projects for which traditional funding may not be available.

About the Fellowship
  • Steinbrenner Institute Doctoral Fellowships are awarded annually.
  • Fellowships will be granted to up to four second-year PhD students.
    • Up to three fellowships will be awarded for $40,000 of tuition and/or stipend.
    • One additional application will be nominated for a $50,000 Heinz Presidential Fellowship.
  • Students receiving support will be referred to as ‘Steinbrenner Institute Doctoral Fellows’ and will be required to present at the annual Steinbrenner Environmental Colloquium, held in the spring semester.
    • The presidential fellow will be referred to as a ‘Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow’ and as such will also be required to present at the annual Steinbrenner Environmental Colloquium as well as Presidential Fellows events.
  • Fellowship candidates must be exceptional CMU PhD students entering their second year of PhD studies and be involved in an ongoing research project.
  • Students across all seven colleges of Carnegie Mellon University are welcome to apply. Proposals should be submitted by a faculty advisor on behalf of their advisee.

For more information on the Steinbrenner Doctoral Research Fellowship program, please contact Neil Donahue.

Previous Fellows

Steinbrenner Fellows

2024-2025 Fellows:

  • Nana Oye Djan (Engineering and Public Policy)
    2024 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow
  • Avery Sonora Williamson (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Jacob Lumpkins (Chemical Engineering)
  • Kyla Fullenwider (Design)

2023-2024 Fellows:

  • Theobard Habineza (Mechanical Engineering)
    2023 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow
  • Abdulhakeem Ahmed (Chemical Engineering)
  • Morgan Newman (Architecture)
  • Leenia Mukhopadhyay (Chemistry)

2022-2023 Fellows:

  • Albin Wells (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
    2022 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow
  • Christine Troller (Chemical Engineering)
  • Kushagra Varma (Architecture)
  • Savannah Talledo (Chemistry)

2021-2022 Fellows:

  • Alexander Polzin (Design)
    2021 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow
  • Maryam Hakimzadeh (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
  • Chunzhi Wu (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
  • Jenna DeVivo (Chemistry)

Where Are They Now?

Learn what previous fellows have been up to since their fellowship

  • Andrew Jones, Jr. (Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy)

    2020 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow

  • Silvana Juri (Transition Design)

  • Sarah Troise (Engineering and Public Policy)

  • Riley Weatherholt (Chemistry)

Learn more about the 2020-2021 fellows

  • Hannah Frame (Chemistry)

    2019 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow

  • Sarah Case (Mechanical Engineering)

  • Eric Lopato (Chemistry)

  • Joan Nkiriki (Engineering and Public Policy)

  • Bailey Bowers (Chemistry)

    2018 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow

  • Ana Cáceres (Engineering and Public Policy & Civil and Environmental Engineering)

  • Brian Dinkelacker (Chemical Engineering)

  • Peter Tschofen (Engineering and Public Policy)

  • Jacob Ward (Engineering and Public Policy)

    2017 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow

  • Rebecca Tanzer (Mechanical Engineering)

  • Mingyi Wang (Chemistry)

  • Yujie Xu (Architecture)

  • Kerrigan Cain (Chemical Engineering)

    Title: "Water Solubility Distribution of Atmospheric Aerosols"

  • Lydia Jahl (Chemistry)

    Title: "Direct determination of the heterogeneous kinetics of N2O5 and IEPOX vapor uptake and secondary aerosol production using aerosol optical tweezers"

  • Bowen Yu (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: "Nanophotonic Solar Thermophotovoltaic cells with Extremely High Efficiency"

Read more about the 2016–2017 Fellows

  • Chelsea Kolb (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: "Impacts of climate change induced bromide increases in groundwater on disinfection byproduct formation and speciation for coastal drinking water utilities"

  • Brian Sergi (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Understanding public perceptions of energy tradeoffs in climate, health, and economic cost using discrete choice analysis"

  • Michael Craig (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Assessing the Economic Merits of Flexible Carbon Capture and Sequestration as a Compliance Strategy with the U.S. Clean Power Plan"

Read more about the 2015–2016 Fellows

  • Georges Saliba (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: "Constraining the radiative uncertainty of anthropogenic emissions on climate"

  • Daniel Gingerich (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Waste-Heat Driven Processes for Power Plant Water Treatments"

  • Michael Polen (Chemistry)

    Title: "Ice Nucleation Properties of Atmospherically Aged Biomass Burning Aerosol"

  • Sara Abdollahi (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Determining the water footprint of a U.S. household: Toward the design of sustainable urban systems that meet future water demands"

Read more about the 2014–2015 Fellows

  • Andrew Hamann (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Coordinated Predictive Control of Hydropower Cascades to enable increased Penetration of Variable Renewable Generation"

  • Jeffrey Song (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Probabilistic Framework for Environmental DNA Sampling Design"

  • Fan Tong (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Does using natural gas to power vehicles reduce greenhouse gas emissions?"

  • Xiang Li (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: "Characterizing the total contribution of vehicular emissions to ambient air pollution"

Learn more about the 2013–2014 fellows

  • Shalini Ramesh (Architecture)

    Title: "Urban Energy Information Modeling: Coupling the thermodynamic interactions between the natural and the built environment affecting building energy consumption"

  • Yuxin Wang (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: "Recommendation for a Protective Bromide Standard for Drinking Water Sources using Data from Southwestern Pa."

  • Adam Ahern (Chemistry)

    Title: "Characterizing Aerosol Emissions from Residential Biomass Burning"

  • Matthew Mills (Chemistry)

    Title: "Biomimetic, Catalyzed Degradation of Ethinylestradiol with Hydrogen Peroxide for Use in Wastewater Treatment"

  • Raul Figueroa (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Evaluation of Technical and Regulatory Strategies to Improve Structural Safety while Minimizing the Environmental Impact of Concrete-Framed buildings with Emphasis on Projects in Low-Income Jurisdictions and Developing Countries"

Learn more about the 2012–2013 Fellows

  • Ahmed Abdulla (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: "Investigating the Economic Viability of Small, Modular Nuclear Reactors"

  • Wayne Chuang (Chemical Engineering)

    Title: "Characterization and Aging of Black Carbon Particles

  • Bowen Yu (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: "Nanophotonic Solar Thermophotovoltaic cells with Extremely High Efficiency"

  • Arvind Murali Mohan (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: "Determining the Microbial Impacts on the Fate of Radionuclides in Flowback Water from Hydraulic Fracturing of the Marcellus Shale"

Learn more about the 2011–2012 Fellows

  • Anita Lee (Chemical Engineering)

    Title: A Comprehensive Computational Approach to Evaluating Amine Based Solvents for Post Combustion CO2 Capture

  • Yeganeh Mashayekh (Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: Impact Assessment of Intelligent Transportation Systems Congestion Management Measures on greenhouse Gas Emissions

  • Scott Schiffres (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: Waste Heat Scavenging through Solution Processed Organic Thermoelectric Materials

  • Aranya Venkatesh (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: Supporting Low Carbon Fuel Policies in the United States using Uncertainty Analysis

  • Emily Fertig (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: An engineering-economic optimization of compressed air energy storage (CAES) to enhance wind power reliability

  • Catherine Izard (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: Economic and Emissions Effects of Climate Change Policy on the Iron and Steel Industry in the United States

  • Elizabeth Traut (Mechanical Engineering)

    Title: How Does Energy Policy Affect Vehicle Design?

  • Jessica Wilson (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: Brominated Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water: Impacts from Shale Gas Production in Pennsylvania
Learn more about the 2009–2010 Fellows

  • Sharon Wagner (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: The Feasibility of Using Parabolic Trough Solar Technology to Increase Renewable Energy Production

  • Melissa Chan (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: Assessing Future Supply Curves for Coal in Light of Technological and Environmental Uncertainties

  • Varun Dutt (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: Human problems of forecasting in dynamic systems

Learn more about the 2008–2009 Fellows

  • Anny Huang (Engineering and Public Policy)

    Title: Life Cycle Energy and Environmental Impacts of Extended Product Responsibility Policy

  • Heather Wakeley (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: Alternative Transportation Fuels: Infrastructure Requirements and Environmental Impacts for Hydrogen and Ethanol

  • Yan Xu (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

    Title: Development of Novel Contaminant Source Tracking with Molecular Microbiology

Learn more about the 2007–2008 Fellows