Graduate Student Accolades
Recent PhD Grad Wins Best Poster Award at IC2S2 2026
Recent PhD Graduate Alireza Javadian Sabet (SCI ‘26G) received the Best Poster Award at the 12th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) held in Burlington, Vermont.
Ahana Biswas Represents SCI at Selective Santa Fe Institute Graduate Workshop
Ahana Biswas, a fourth-year PhD student in information science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information (SCI) and researcher in the PICSO Lab, attended the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) Graduate Workshop in Computational Social Science from May 24 through June 5, 2026. A highly selective and prestigious program, the workshop brings together a small cohort of graduate students from leading institutions to collaborate on interdisciplinary research.
PhD alumna named Weatherhead Scholar at Harvard
Dijana Mujkanović (PhD '26) will begin a yearlong appointment as a Raphael Morrison Dorman Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard's Weatherhead Center for International Affairs this fall.
Graduate student Ryan Lindner earned a Boren Award
Ryan Lindner, a master’s student in the School of Public and International Affairs, earned a 2026 Boren Award for International Study. This summer, Lindner is using his fellowship to study Russian at the Novamova Language School in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Leon Min Wins American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship
Leon Min, a second-year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering and the School of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to support his research on tissue-engineered vascular grafts.
Two SSOE Grad Students among 5 Pitt SMART Scholarship-for-Service Awardees
Andrew Stricklin (ENGR ’23), a mechanical engineering PhD student in the Swanson School, and Lance Long, who is studying bioengineering in the Swanson School’s MS-to-PhD program, are among the five University of Pittsburgh students who earned the SMART Scholarship-for-Service, which provides merit-based scholarships from the U.S. government to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students seeking degrees in science, math, technology and engineering.
7 Pitt Grad Students among those named to the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has named its 2026 class of Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) scholars, which includes 7 Pitt graduate students among the awardees and 3 more in its honorable mentions.
Doctoral student selected for AJPH fellowship
Pitt Public Health doctoral student Aubree McMahon has been selected to join the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) Student Think Tank Fellowship for the 2026–2027 cohort.
Pitt Team Takes Top Prize at KPMG Cup Showcase
Varun Shelke, a master’s student studying information science at SCI, was part of a team with four Pitt Business graduate students who took home first place in the Fall 2025 KPMG Cup Showcase.
Yoni Preuss (MPA ’26) Wins American Planning Association Scholarship
When Yoni Preuss (MPA ’26) was awarded the Alex Yerkey Memorial Scholarship from the Southwest Section of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA PA SW) in recognition of his commitment to the field of urban planning, it marked the next step in a journey he traces back to a summer spent studying in Berlin, Germany.
Grad student discovers 11.5-billion-year-old galaxy sharing a feature with our own
Research led by Daniel Ivanov, a physics and astronomy graduate student in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt, uncovered a contender for one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar, a sometimes-striking visual feature that can play an important role in a galaxy’s evolution.
MPA student receives Outstanding Student Award from ASPA
From the campaign trail to city hall, second-year Master of Public Administration (MPA) student David Bilger is putting public service into action—and being recognized for his impact.
PhD student earns SSWR Doctoral Fellows Award
Doctoral student Alex Fixler is the recipient of the 2026 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Doctoral Fellows Award for her dissertation proposal “Policy, Penalties, and Public Safety: Measuring the Impact of State Drug Laws on Arrest and Overdose Rates.” Alex was also a recent recipient of a Provost’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
ChemE PhD Alum Becca Segel Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List
Becca Segel, a 2024 ChemE PhD graduate, was just named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry list for 2026. Becca is the founder of FlowCellutions, which makes predictive diagnostics and hardware sensors for grid-scale batteries. Learn more in Becca's Forbes profile.
Pitt School of Medicine Student Receives Herbert W. Nickens Scholarship
Maheen Ibrahimi, a third-year student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was determined to make a change upon her arrival to the city. Her efforts over the past few years have led her to be selected as a 2025 recipient of the Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarship from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).