40 Finalists Named for the 2018 Hertz Fellowships

The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation has announced the 40 finalists for its PhD fellowship in applied science, math and engineering for the class of 2018. They were selected from nearly 700 applicants. Each Fellowship consists of up to 5 years of academic fiscal support valued at $250,000 and provides research freedom at a participating graduate institution in the United States. The recipients of the 2018 Hertz Foundation Fellowship will be notified in late March

“Our interviewers were very impressed by each of these finalists, and we congratulate all of them on having reached this point in the rigorous Hertz Fellowship selection process,” said Robbee Baker Kosak, Hertz Foundation President. “It’s always a daunting challenge to narrow down such an exceptional field of hundreds of candidates to the few fellowships we’re able to give each year.”

Since 1963, the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation has been providing PhD Fellowships to exceptionally talented individuals expected to have the greatest impact on the application of science, math and engineering to human problems. It is the legacy of John Hertz, a Hungarian immigrant who made his fortune by capitalizing on the entrepreneurship prospects in the budding automotive industry, and who strongly believed that innovative and entrepreneurial solutions were vital to the strength, security and prosperity of our nation.

Today, the Hertz Fellows number more than 1,200—67 of whom are currently pursuing their PhDs. Together, they comprise one of the most influential groups of leaders, innovators, engineers, mathematicians, and scientists found in the American corporate, university, national laboratory and military sectors. To date, Hertz Fellows collectively possess more than 3,000 patents, have founded more than 200 companies and have received more than 200 major national and international awards, including eight Breakthrough Prizes in Science, a Fields Medal, a Turing Award and two Nobel Prizes. In addition to financial support, the Foundation provides ongoing mentoring, symposia, and retreats to build a network of peers, providing Fellows a forum to share ideas and explore opportunities throughout their careers.

Finalists are listed with their general field of study and present or recent school.

Patrick Almhjell
Quant. Biology/Bio-engineering
Caltech

Alexandra Barth Chemistry
Caltech

Benjamin Bartlett
Applied physics
Stanford University

Alexandra Brown
Chemistry
MIT

Dylan Cable
App. Mathematics and Statistics
Stanford University

Lillian Chin
Electrical Engineering/Comp. Sci.
MIT

Iris Cong
Physics Harvard
University

Colin Defant
Mathematics
Princeton University

Marisa Egan
Microbiology
Saint Joseph’s University

Katherine Fraser
Physics
Harvard University

Kanika Gakhar
Aerospace
Engineering Texas A&M

Christopher Giuliano
Synthetic and Quant. Biology
SUNY at Stony Brook

Peter Godart
Mechanical Engineering
MIT

Hans Hanley
Computer Science and Engineering
Princeton University

Sarah Hooper
Electrical Engineering
Stanford University

Karthik Hullahalli
Modern Biology
University of Texas-Dallas

Michael Janner
Computer Science
MIT

Maxinder Kanwal
Quant. Biology/Bio-engineering
UC Berkeley

Margaret Klureza
Chemistry
Harvard University

William Kuszmaul
Computer Science
Stanford University

Katherine Latimer
Materials
UC Berkeley

Joseph Levin
Quantitative Biology
Rockefeller University

David Palmer
Computer Science
MIT

Grace Pan
Physics
Yale University

Jonathan Paras
Materials Science and Engineering
MIT

Ethan Perez
Computer Science
Rice University

Aditya Raguram
Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Harvard University

Ramya Rangan
Biophysics
Stanford University

Sujit Rao
Computer Science
Cornell University

Andrew Saydjari
Physics
Yale University

Dina Sharon
Chemistry
Princeton University

Ethan Sussman
Applied Mathematics
Stanford University

Gabrielle Tender
Chemistry
Caltech

Brian Trippe
Quant. Biology/Bio-engineering
MIT

Danil Tyulmankov
Neuroscience
Columbia University

Michael Wadas
Mechanical Engineering
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

Olivia Waring
Medical Engineering and Medical Physics
MIT/Harvard Joint program (Health Sciences and Technology Division)

Garrett Watson
Applied Physics
MIT

Andrew Yu
Electrical Engineering
Stanford University

Dominic Yurk
Quant. Biology/Bio-engineering
Caltech