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Two More UCSB PhD Students Receive Prestigious NSF Fellowships

Monday, July 7, 2025

Two months after they were placed on the honorable mention list by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), UC Santa Barbara PhD students Logan Winston and Payton Croskey received an email notifying them that were being offered fully-funded fellowships. Neither knew quite what to think and first experience disbelief at the news. 

“In my initial letter, NSF mentioned that additional spots may open depending on funding, but with recent developments, I had lost hope,” said Winston, a rising third-year materials PhD student. “I thought that perhaps it was a scam or they were reiterating my honorable mention. It wasn't until I checked their website that I believed the award. I couldn't fall back asleep and giddily waited to tell my advisor, friends, and family.” 

“I read the email, re-read it, and immediately forwarded it to my advisor and parents, just in case I had suddenly forgotten how to read. I spent half the day convinced it had to be a mistake or a scam,” said Croskey, a rising third-year PhD student in the Media Arts and Technology Program. “Still, despite my disbelief, I was thrilled—not only to be selected for such a prestigious fellowship, but also to receive substantial support for the remainder of my PhD.”

The impact of the status change is significant, because a GRFP award comes with three years of annual financial support consisting of a living stipend —currently $37,000— and $16,000 for tuition. The NSF program provides fellowships to individuals selected early in their graduate careers based on their demonstrated potential for significant achievements in research and in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The fellowship allows Croskey to pursue a project that she is passionate about—enabling marginalized communities to secure their place in the future historical record, ensuring that emergent technologies, such as AI, elevate and empower these groups by reflecting their histories. She draws on Afrofuturism, a methodological framework rooted in Afrodiasporic visions of the future and grounded in critical engagement in race, class, and power, as a rich foundation for creatively and critically reimagining AI development. Advised by Jennifer Jacobs, an assistant professor in the Media Arts and Technology Program and Computer Science Department, Croskey seeks to develop ethical methods for collecting, storing, and modeling cultural data in AI. Croskey says that the NSF Fellowship holds even deeper significance to her now and reinforces her commitment to her work. 

“Receiving the NSF GRFP amid our current political climate has given me an even greater sense of responsibility to pursue my research with full force,” said Croskey, who earned a bachelor’s degree in African American Studies with a minor in Computer Science from Princeton University. “Many of my peers are being forced to shift their focus, sidelining critical research that could serve communities that have been historically exploited, ignored, or otherwise harmed by technology development. So, while I'm deeply grateful for the personal freedom this fellowship affords me, I also feel a profound duty to ensure that the shaping of emergent technologies is inclusive of all communities today, not at some distant point in the future when the political winds have changed.”

Advised by assistant professor Daniel Oropeza, Winston studies the mechanisms of ultrasonic atomization, a process in which ultrasonic vibrations are used to create custom metal powder, known as feedstock, for metal 3D printing. Winston is working to optimize the process in order to develop higher quality feedstock that will provide increased flexibility and efficiency in metal 3D printing. Winston says that receiving the NSF Fellowship affirms the importance of his work.

“I am proud that my proposal was deemed worthy of scientific pursuit, and I am even more passionate and motivated about my research,” said Winston, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Physics from UC Davis before working as a staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “Likewise, I am grateful to the NSF for trusting recipients to pursue our research with minimal intrusion.”

Winston and Croskey bring the total of number of 2025 GRFP recipients associated with The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering at UCSB to eight. They joined materials PhD student Anya Mulligan, electrical and computer engineering PhD student Kyle Lee, and four recipients who earned bachelor’s degrees from the college, Jordan Prescott, Abhiram Devata, Camille Wardlaw, and Steven Man, who were awarded fellowships in April. 

The federal agency initially issued 1,000 award offers in mid-April, before offering 504 additional fellowships in June to applicants who were previously listed as honorable mention. The development brought the total number of 2025 awards to 1,500, a significant increase from the initial offering, but still down from the usual funding rate of around 2,000 fellowships per year. 

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Jennifer Jacobs, Daniel Oropeza
UCSB PhD students Payton Croskey (left) and Logan Winston received 2025 Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation.

UCSB PhD students Payton Croskey (left) and Logan Winston received 2025 Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation.