2018 Mistletoe Recipients
Seven U of M graduate students and postdocs selected for first cohort of Mistletoe Research Fellows
New program awards research grants to postdoctoral fellows and advanced Ph.D. candidates as well as providing opportunities to collaborate with startups with a high potential for social and humanitarian impact.
The Graduate School is pleased to announce that four Ph.D. candidates and three postdoctoral researchers from the University of Minnesota are among the 36 winners of the national Mistletoe Research Fellowship competition. The winners are:
- Peter Crisp, Plant & Microbial Biology: Postdoc Associate
- Natalya Goloviznina, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology & Genetics: Ph.D. Candidate
- Jessica McKay, Biomedical Engineering: Ph.D. Candidate
- Peng Peng, Biosystems Engineering: Ph.D. Candidate
- Rosalyn Putland, Marine Science: Postdoc Associate
- Abrajeet Roy, Psychiatry: Postdoc Fellow
- Chris Smith, Mechanical Engineering: Ph.D. Candidate
Each Mistletoe Fellow is awarded a $10,000 Unfettered Research Grant that is to be applied to their own individual research activities. This unrestricted grant can be used over the course of a single academic year for almost any university-approved research-related activity, including conference travel support, purchases of equipment, and software and database licenses.
Each Mistletoe Fellow also participates in a Mistletoe Startup Collaboration that provides professional training. After being matched with a startup during a three-day summer workshop, the Fellow participates in a year-long team project in which they apply their knowledge to a specific science or technology problem that will help an early-stage startup further the development of a product with social impact. Collaborating remotely via a state-of-the-art online platform, Mistletoe Fellows work in small cross-disciplinary and inter-institutional teams of four researchers and a mentor from one of the partner organizations. Projects are structured as an extracurricular project that requires just a few hours a week outside of the fellow’s existing research commitments.