UC Irvine Engineering Students Named NSF Fellows

June 2, 2026 - Five UCI Samueli School students have received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award this year.

The NSF GRFP recognizes graduate students who are continuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM fields, and who have shown potential to make impactful contributions to the field. Each fellowship provides three years of financial support over the five-year fellowship period.

Scott Duy Kiehn is a materials science and engineering graduate student. He conducts research under the advisement of Kai He, associate professor of materials science and engineering.He’s lab, Lab for Energy, Nano and Sustainability (LENS), develops energy and quantum materials alongside the microscopy processes used to characterize the materials.

With He, Kiehn has the autonomy to work ambitiously on his own terms, something he believes is necessary for the research he is pursuing. 

“Our instruments collectively reveal far more about materials than any researcher can extract from them alone,” Kiehn said. “Closing that gap requires building data-driven integrative infrastructure across multiple characterization techniques –  the kind of foundational work a fellowship is uniquely suited to support.” 

Lanie Le is a chemical and biomolecular engineering graduate student who has been advised by Stacy Copp, associate professor of materials science and engineering, as well as Herdeline Ardoña, assistant professor in chemical and biomolecular engineering. Le is a graduate student researcher in Copp’s lab, and currently she is investigating silver-DNA nanocluster probes for biomedical imaging. 

“Silver-DNA nanoclusters are promising contrast agents for deep tissue imaging and noninvasive diagnostics due to their near-infrared light emission,” Le said. “As a safer, nontoxic alternative to traditional imaging techniques, they offer a versatile, high-throughput platform for studying diseases like cancer. By improving the in vivo delivery of these nanoclusters, we can fully harness their diagnostic potential and leverage the exciting opportunities enabled by their programmable nature.”

Le believes that this fellowship will help bridge her interdisciplinary background in biomaterials and biophysics-focused cancer research with her interest in nanotechnology. Eventually, she hopes to pursue a career as a professor and serve as a role model for other female scientists in the Vietnamese-American community.

Madeleine Marston is a chemical engineering major who is currently an undergraduate researcher for Herdeline Ardoña’s research lab. Under the advisement of graduate student Kathryn Lee, Marston works on developing visual light initiators and photoconductive biomolecular nanomaterials with assembly state-dependent photohydrogelation pathways and electronic processes. 

“My research is important because it explores novel biomaterials that furthers the field of tissue engineering,” Marston said. “I am pursuing a fellowship to continue researching polymeric biomaterials in graduate school.”

UCI biomedical engineering student Jiayuan Wang and bioengineering major Hanh An Nguyen were also offered NSF GRFP awards, and there are five engineering students from other institutions who are choosing to pursue their fellowship at UCI. These students are Malak Gamal El-Din, Sina Ghandian, Elias Heanue, Karina Millican and Cameron Schmitt.

– Grace Hefner