Nicolás Peláez, a Colombian born graduate student jointly advised by Luis Amaral and Rich Carthew, was one of 48 international students working at U.S. institutions awarded the prestigious HHMI International Student Research Fellowship. Sean B. Carroll, HHMI’s vice-president for science education, noted that the “applicant pool was spectacular” and that HHMI hopes, “through these fellowships, to identify future scientific leaders.” The two-to-three year scholarships will support a select group of 48 graduate students from 22 countries who are currently in their 2nd or 3rd year, a moment in their graduate career where they have already chosen a lab and an thesis adviser, and have demonstrated their potential for undertaking innovative and independent research projects.
Prior to this award, Nico received a Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) Scholar, and a Malkin Scholar Award from the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University. Nico’s research focus on fly eye patterning and molecular networks. See this feature, and this one [dead link] for details.