NEWS
NORMAN, Okla. – Five current and former students from the University of Oklahoma have received prestigious fellowships to pursue graduate degrees in STEM. The National Science Foundation has announced Aditi Gali, Evan Jones, Cayman Matson, Marinna Stopa and Liam Thompson as among the 2026-27 recipients of its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
The GRFP fellows are graduate students who have displayed exceptional potential for STEM leadership and were chosen from a highly competitive pool of nearly 14,000 applicants this cycle. Through the program, they will receive three years of financial support to be used over a five-year period.
Since its creation in 1952, GRFP has supported more than 70,000 fellows, over 40 of whom have received Nobel Prizes.
“We congratulate these five students for each receiving this outstanding recognition,” said OU Senior Vice President and Provost André-Denis Wright. “We also thank the National Science Foundation for supporting these promising future leaders, who represent our commitment to empowering students to make an impact within the OU community and beyond.”
Aditi Gali is a senior in the Gallogly College of Engineering. She will pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Gali has been working with Michele Galizia, Ph.D., to study mechanisms governing selectivity and stability in polymer membranes for gas and liquid separations, and aims to deepen her knowledge in membrane design and advanced material characterization.
Evan Jones is a senior in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences and the Honors College. He will pursue a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Jones plans to combine structural biology with computational chemistry to discover novel properties of proteins.
Cayman Matson is a graduate of the Gallogly College of Engineering and the Honors College. They are pursuing their Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Matson’s research focuses primarily on treating and preventing scarring of the vocal folds and on developing various therapeutics and novel delivery methods to treat this scarring.
Marinna Stopa is a graduate student in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences. She is pursuing her M.S. in Geography and Environmental Sustainability at OU ahead of her Ph.D. Stopa’s current work focuses on examining the barriers people face when evacuating from hurricanes, and her future work will continue research into how experts can better communicate risk and vulnerability during severe weather.
Liam Thompson is a senior in the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences and the Honors College. He will pursue a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Utah. Thompson’s work will leverage ground-based radar, machine learning algorithms and his background in both atmospheric science and environmental sustainability to advance air quality forecasting research.
This story has been updated to include Honors College affiliations.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
Mulugeta Gebregziabher, Ph.D., a nationally and internationally recognized public health leader, researcher and educator, has been named a professor and the endowed chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma Hudson College of Public Health.
Engineering Days at the University of Oklahoma give high school students direct exposure to engineering through hands-on, discipline-based experiences on campus. The program brings rising juniors and seniors to the Norman campus for one-day sessions led by OU faculty and supported by current engineering students.
The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $10.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the Oklahoma Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Sensory Biology. The center will serve as a hub for research into how cells sense and respond to their environment and the diseases that can occur when that process malfunctions.
