Congratulations to graduate students Kimberly Bekas and Alaine Hippee for receiving a Graduate Diversity Fellowship for the Fall 2020 Semester from the Graduate College at the University of Iowa! The Graduate Diversity Fellowships “are presented to graduate students from disadvantaged and/or underrepresented groups in their fields of study.” Academic performance and progress, student plans for how to maximize the fellowship, and letters of recommendation are some of the factors that are considered in choosing the recipients. The fellowship provides tuition support and a stipend.

Bekas is a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics and is a member of Bryan Phillips’ lab in the Department of Biology. Hippee is a PhD student in the Integrated Biology (iBio) Graduate Program and a member of Andrew Forbes’ lab in the Department of Biology.