Introducing the 2023-24 PPF Cohort
Amalia Bastos
Bastos’ research concerns comparative cognition, investigating the minds of nonhuman animals and how they perceive the world around them. Through the fellowship award, Bastos is studying the foundations of normativity in collaboration with Christopher Krupenye in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She will use state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology to determine the extent to which humans and chimpanzees share an understanding of social rules.
Fun Fact | In her spare time, Bastos goes on hikes with her dog, Rohan, and tries to identify every bird species they find along the way.
Gabrielle Evans
Evans’ research uses reproductive justice and historical trauma frameworks to analyze the impact of trauma on the sexual health of Native American adolescents and women. During the fellowship, she is working with mentors Allison Barlow, Jennifer Richards, and Chris Kemp in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. This award will help advance her long-term career goals of becoming an independent researcher and scholar in Native American sexual health, while also continuing to advance the sexual health and well-being of native peoples. Evans is piloting an intervention plan outlined in her dissertation for developing culturally relevant and inclusive trauma-informed sexual health education programs for native older adolescent and young adult women.
Fun Fact | Evans currently has 20 houseplants and is always looking to expand her collection.
Patrick Jefferson
Jefferson’s research uses string theory as a theoretical laboratory for elucidating properties of quantum gravity that may help tackle outstanding challenges in high-energy physics and cosmology. His recent work has focused on charting the landscape of string theory vacuum solutions containing the Standard Model particles and interactions. The fellowship provides Jefferson with an opportunity to enrich this research program by collaborating with leading experts on modern developments on symmetries in quantum field theory and black hole physics. Jefferson is working in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, alongside mentors Ibou Bah and Marc Kamionkowski.
Fun Fact | Apart from his love for physics, Jefferson also has an avid interest in music and has played and recorded drums with several bands.
Yang Yang
Yang’s research involves partial differential equations and geometric analysis, with a particular interest in questions concerning regularity and classification of global solutions to geometric variational problems. This fellowship award will help advance his current research doing controlled growth of the anisotropic Bernstein problem, trying to achieve a Bernstein-type result for global minimizers of some parametric elliptic functional with growth constraints. He is working with mentors Jacob Bernstein and Yi Wang in the Department of Mathematics.
Fun Fact | Yang loves swimming in his spare time, and his personal best in freestyle is completing 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) in 16 minutes.
2019-2020/21*
- Ayobami Akenroye
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Corrine Keet
- Ashley Cureton Turner
- School of Education | Mentor: Annette Anderson
- Kerry-Ann Mitchell
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Chad Gordon
- Jorge Morales
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Chaz Firestone
- Genevieve Stein-O’Brien
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Elana Fertig
- Jerreed Ivanich
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Alison Barlow
- Ehsan Azimi
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Peter Kazanzides
- Fernando Tormos-Aponte
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Vesla Weaver
*2021 COVID Hardship Extensions
2018-2019
- Rheeda Ali
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Natalia Trayanova
- Kimberly Boddy
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Marc Kamionkowski
- Sabina Henneberg
- School of Advanced International Studies | Mentor: Peter Lewis
- Melissa Hladek
- School of Nursing | Mentor: Sarah Szanton
- Wilmina Landford
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Devin O’Brien Coon
- Heather Shappell
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Martin Lindquist
- Ayushi Sinha
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Russell Taylor
2017-2018
- Farah El Najjar
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Andrew Pekosz
- Shanshan Jiang
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Jinyuan Zhou
- Kathryn Moss
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Ahmet Hoke
- Jonathan Musila
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Steven Rokita
- Melanie Shears
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Photini Sinnis
- Eleanor Nicole Thornton
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Erin Chung
- Alexandre Sasha White
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Beverly Silver
- Tanya Williams McDonald
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Mackenzie Cervenka
2016-2017
- Stanley Andrisse
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Sheng Wu
- Sebastian Barreto Ortiz
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Dan Berkowitz
- Miranda Darby
- Schoool of Medicine | Mentor: Serven Sabunciyan
- Marc Edwards
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Peter Devreotes
- Ballington Kinlock
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Roland Thorpe
- Susana Rodriguez
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Guang William Wong
- Reyhan Westbrook
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Jeremy Walston
- Dionna Williams
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Janice Clements
- Dominika Wylezalek
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Nadia Zakamska