Earth and Environmental Science alum wins National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

NSF fellowships are awarded to students who demonstrate the potential to be future leaders and innovators in their fields. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award provides 3-years of tuition and stipend support.

Verhagen’s doctoral research is in the fields of paleomagnetism and planetary science at Rutgers University, where her thesis research focuses on the Chicxulub Impact Crater, the physical record of the Cretaceous/Paleogene impact event that occurred 66 million years ago. Verhagen is part of an international team deciphering the record of this seminal event in Earth’s history using a drill core collected during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) Expedition 364.  Verhagen uses paleomagnetism to study impact processes such as impact heating, shock, and post-impact hydrothermalism.

NSF graduate research fellowships are highly competitive, with a total of 2000 fellowships awarded annually to students in Science, Engineering, and Social Science graduate programs. The NSF-GRF competition is open to graduating seniors and to graduate students who are at the beginning of their program. Applications are due in late October-early November. Montclair State University students who are interested in applying for an NSF graduate research fellowship are encouraged to contact Dr. Brachfeld, Acting Associate Dean of CSAM, who serves as the NSF-GRF Resource Faculty member for Montclair State University.