Two international graduate students receive fellowships

Two Yale doctoral students have received fellowships through a new initiative of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Sashka Dimitrievska, in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Alice Qinhua Zhou, in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, will each receive a $43,000 award, which is given to 50 international graduate students named fellows each year.

Dimitrievska, a native of Canada, is working with Laura E. Niklason, M.D., Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology and of biomedical engineering, in studying aspects of engineered blood vessels (see Lifelines). Zhou, a native of China, is working with Corey S. O’Hern, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical engineering and of physics, and Lynne J. Regan, Ph.D., professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of chemistry, in a study to predict and redesign protein-protein interactions.

Recognizing that international graduate students in the U.S. often have difficulty securing funding, HHMI launched the International Student Research Fellowships Program last year to support the dissertation work of these students. HHMI has awarded more than $2 million in fellowships to students from 19 countries.