Joshua Hazelnis Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

The highly sought-after award provides a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 and a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees paid to students’ institution. The fellowship provides recipients with the freedom to conduct the research of their choice, a valuable incentive that has helped make the program one of the most competitive and prestigious for U.S. students in the sciences.

Joshua Hazelnis, from Fallsburg, New York, is a senior in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He will pursue a PhD in chemistry at the University of Michigan. Hazelnis’ research interests involve understanding molecular interactions that could improve the performance of redox flow batteries, a promising technology for storing energy produced by renewable sources such as wind and solar.

Hazelnis, a Provost Scholarship recipient at UB, conducted research in UB chemistry and chemical engineering labs, with a focus on optimizing the performance of redox flow batteries. His presentation on this technology won first place in the 2019 Transforming Our Tomorrow competition at UB. Hazelnis chose to attend UB as an undergraduate in part because he wanted to be in a diverse environment. He hopes to pursue a career as a research professor, and has shared his passion for science with other young people by volunteering at a UB sustainability camp for middle school students, developing demos for science classrooms, and mentoring fellow UB undergraduates, including students he tutored while serving as a resident advisor.