Claire Zurn, a PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Computational Medicine, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Zurn will receive a three-year annual stipend along with a cost of education allowance for tuition and fees and the freedom to conduct her own research.

The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics who are pursuing research-based advanced degrees. This prestigious fellowship program is the oldest of its kind and is known for choosing recipients who become life-long leaders that contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching.

Zurn conducts her research under the mentorship of Sridevi Sarma, Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine. Her research interests are electrical neuromodulation therapies and their optimization through modeling. Claire’s current work is in the development of a closed-loop stimulation approach for chronic pain treatment in a rat model.