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.
Steinbrenner Fellows
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)
2020-2021 Fellows:
- 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)
2019-2020 Fellows
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Hannah Frame (Chemistry)
2019 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow -
Sarah Case (Mechanical Engineering)
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Eric Lopato (Chemistry)
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Joan Nkiriki (Engineering and Public Policy)
2018–2019 Fellows
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Bailey Bowers (Chemistry)
2018 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow -
Ana Cáceres (Engineering and Public Policy & Civil and Environmental Engineering)
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Brian Dinkelacker (Chemical Engineering)
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Peter Tschofen (Engineering and Public Policy)
2017–2018 Fellows
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Jacob Ward (Engineering and Public Policy)
2017 Steinbrenner Institute and Heinz Presidential Fellow -
Rebecca Tanzer (Mechanical Engineering)
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Mingyi Wang (Chemistry)
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Yujie Xu (Architecture)
2016–2017 Fellows
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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"
2015–2016 Fellows
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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"
2014–2015 Fellows
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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"
2013–2014 Fellows
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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"
2012–2013 Fellows
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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"
2011–2012 Fellows
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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"
2010–2011 Fellows
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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
2009–2010 Fellows
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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
2008–2009 Fellows
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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
2007–2008 Fellows
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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