COSAM Students, Alumnus Awarded
National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowships
“This was a banner year for Auburn with four
successful Gilman applicants,” said Deborah
Weiss, director of Auburn Abroad, the university’s
study abroad program. “We work closely with
the National Prestigious Scholarships Office in
the Honors College to provide students with the
assistance needed during the application process.
In addition, we want returning Gilman Scholars
to come and work for our office. They are an
inspiration to students who are interested in going
abroad, and their outreach projects touch so many
young lives and add to the cultural richness of the
Auburn area.”
The Institute for International Education, which
oversees the program, is an independent, not-forprofit organization based in New York and founded
in 1919. Its mission is to advance international
education and access to education worldwide.
Two COSAM students and one alumnus were
awarded prestigious National Science Foundation
Graduate Research Fellowships. The recipients
are Chloe Josefson and Hannah Correia, both
biological sciences doctoral students in the College
of Sciences and Mathematics, and Erik Brush, a
2013 College of Sciences and Mathematics graduate
in biological sciences.
The fellowship provides three years of support at
$34,000 annually and an additional $12,000 cost-ofeducation allowance. The purpose of the fellowship
program is to help ensure the vitality and diversity
of the scientific and engineering workforce in the
United States.
Josefson, a native of St. Petersburg, Florida, received
a bachelor of science in biology and a bachelor
of arts in psychology at the University of South
Florida. While at Auburn, she was awarded the
university’s Cellular and Molecular Biosciences
Fellowship and has studied under the direction
of Elizabeth Schwartz and Haruka Wada, both
assistant professors in the Department of Biological
Sciences.
For her dissertation, Josefson is researching how an
adult bird’s singing behavior is impacted by infection
during early life. She is interested in avian stress
physiology, ecoimmunology, ecological epigenetics,
and the neurobiology of bird song. Josefson has
worked with Eastern bluebirds, house sparrows, and
zebra finches.
“Being awarded this fellowship is a great honor, as it
allows me to focus solely on my research for the rest
of my dissertation,” Josefson said. “This fellowship
will allow me to explore different avenues of my
research, and I am so excited to see what progress I
can make in my field.”
Correia, a graduate of Huntingdon College in
mathematics and biology, is concurrently a master’s
student in the Department of Mathematics and
Statistics at Auburn. She is interested in bringing
stronger statistical methods to the biological
sciences and improving analysis of complex
eco