Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study
The goal of the Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study is to increase the diversity among scientists who are prepared to assume leadership roles in science, particularly as college and university faculty. The program provides awards to pairs of students and their dissertation advisers who are selected for their scientific leadership and commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the sciences.
The Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study were created in 2004 in honor of the late James H. Gilliam, Jr., a charter Trustee of HHMI and chair of its Audit and Compensation Committee. Mr. Gilliam was a respected business and civic leader who spent his life nurturing excellence and diversity in science and education.
The goal of this graduate fellowship program is to increase the diversity among scientists who are prepared to assume leadership roles in science, particularly as college and university faculty. The program provides awards to pairs of students and their dissertation advisers who are selected for their scientific leadership and commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the sciences.
Program Benefits
- Fellows are supported for up to three years of dissertation research, typically in years three, four, and five of PhD study.
- Compensation for the 2020-21 fellowship year is $50,000. This includes an annual fellow stipend of $33,000, an institution allowance (in lieu of tuition and fees) of $10,000, a fellow educational allowance of $3,000, and an adviser allowance of $4,000 to support diversity and inclusion efforts at the graduate level.
Please refer to the 2020 Gilliam Program Announcement (PDF) for more information on the four categories and allowable expenses.
The Gilliam program facilitates an environment that supports growth of the fellows’ research and professional skills, including expanding their professional networks. Fellows are invited to attend the annual Gilliam meeting and HHMI Investigator Conferences.
The fellows’ advisers are expected to participate in mentor training workshops. The year-long workshops include monthly online and two in-person components that are designed to optimize their mentoring skills and sharpen their ability to evaluate themselves as mentors to a diverse and inclusive pool of future scholars.
Additional activities are designed to facilitate connections and encourage a sense of community among the different cohorts of awardees.
HHMI’s Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study are open to eligible pairs comprising thesis advisers and PhD students (“adviser-student pairs”). Application for the Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study is by invitation only.
- Adviser-student pairs from eligible disciplines must be nominated by the HHMI-designated institutional representative.
- Prospective fellows must be U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or other immigrants to the U.S., and be from racial, ethnic, or other groups recognized in the U.S. as underrepresented in the sciences, or Alumni of the HHMI EXROP, and be at the appropriate program stage of their PhD training.
Notifications will be sent to the designated nominators by HHMI in late August, the submission portal opens in early September, and the deadline for nominations for the competition is mid-October. (See Application tab)
The adviser-student pairs must be studying scientific problems in biomedical and life science disciplines including plant biology, evolutionary biology, biophysics, chemical biology, biomedical engineering, and computational biology.
Nominations must be made for students in their second or third year of a PhD program who have advanced to candidacy by September 1, 2020.
Students who are enrolled in an MD/PhD or other dual-degree program are not eligible.
Note: Application for the Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study is by invitation only.
HHMI’s Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study are awarded on the basis of
- Commitment and/or demonstrated ability of the institution and the thesis adviser to develop outstanding scentists especially those from underrepresented groups, and
- The candidate’s promise as a scientific investigator, potential for leadership in the scientific community, aspiration for a career in academia, and a commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in science.
- An evaluation of all submitted materials (including the nomination, adviser, student, third-party reference). All of these materials will be critical elements in the evaluation of the application.
Components of the application
Nomination
- Due: October 18, 2019
Thesis Adviser Application
Opens: Mid November
Closes: January 3, 2020
Fellow Application
Opens: Mid November
Closes: January 3, 2020
For more information about the nomination and application components, please refer to the 2020 Gilliam Program Announcement (PDF).
Current Fellows
| Fellow | Institution | Thesis Adviser | Cohort Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emily Ackerman | University of Pittsburgh | Jason Shoemaker | 2018 |
| Elise Adamson | Duke University | Kafui Dzirasa | 2019 |
| Marie Adomako | University of California-San Diego | Susan Golden | 2017 |
| Megan Agajanian | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Ben Major | 2018 |
| Shanique Alabi | Yale University | Craig Crews | 2018 |
| Eddy Albarran | Stanford University | Jun Ding | 2016 |
| Kellianne Alexander | University of Massachusetts | Michael Francis | 2019 |
| James Allen | Washington University in St. Louis | James Skeath | 2016 |
| Michael Allevato | University of California, San Diego School of Medicine | J. Silvio Gutkind | 2019 |
| Macarena Aloi | University of Washington | Gwenn Garden | 2016 |
| Francesca Aloisio | University of California, San Francisco | Diane Barber | 2016 |
| Marcus Alvarez | University of California, Los Angeles | Paivi Pajukanta | 2018 |
| Angelo Andres | The Ohio State University | Blake Peterson | 2018 |
| Raquel Aragon | University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine | Melissa Spencer | 2018 |
| Aleena Arakaki | University of California, San Diego School of Medicine | JoAnn Trejo | 2018 |
| Shireen Attaran | University of Pittsburgh | Carola Neumann | 2016 |
| Justin Avila | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Michelle Southard-Smith | 2019 |
| Lindsey Backman | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Catherine L. Drennan | 2017 |
| Selina Baeza-Loya | The University of Chicago | Ruth Anne Eatock | 2019 |
| Juan Barajas | The Ohio State University | Kalpana Ghoshal | 2017 |
| Luendreo Barboza | New York University | Cristina Alberini | 2018 |
| Isle Bastille | Harvard University | Lisa Goodrich | 2018 |
| Shawna Battle | Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University | Stanley Hazen | 2017 |
| Kyle Begovich | University of California, San Diego | James Wilhelm | 2016 |
| Jessie Benedict | The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | David Linden | 2018 |
| Sherry Bermeo | University of Washington | David Baker | 2017 |
| Abraham Beyene | University of California, Berkeley | Markita Landry | 2018 |
| Gabriela Bosque Ortiz | Yale School of Medicine | Marcelo Dietrich | 2019 |
| Ashley Bourke | University of Colorado Denver | Matthew Kennedy | 2016 |
| Amanda Bradley | University of Washington Medical Center | Richard Gardner | 2018 |
| Taylor Brown | University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine | Elissa Hallem | 2018 |
| Jordan Brown | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | Danny Winder | 2018 |
| Giancarlo Bruni | University of Colorado Boulder | Joel Kralj | 2017 |
| Ernesto Cabezas-Bou | Yale University School of Medicine (Adviser); University of Puerto Rico (Fellow) | Daniel Colón-Ramos | 2019 |
| Elena Caceres | University of California, San Francisco | Michael Keiser | 2016 |
| Amber Caldara | Emory University School of Medicine | Andrew Kowalczyk | 2018 |
| Francis Cambronero | Vanderbilt University | Angela Jefferson | 2018 |
| Kyle Card | Michigan State University | Richard Lenski | 2017 |
| Gabriel Castro | University of California, San Diego | Chambers Hughes | 2016 |
| Kate Cavanaugh | The University of Chicago | Margaret Gardel | 2018 |
| Sergio Cepeda | University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio | Ann Griffith | 2018 |
| Monica Cesinger | University of Washington | Michelle Reniere | 2018 |
| Manuella Clark-Cotton | Duke University | Daniel Lew | 2016 |
| Lars Clark | Harvard Medical School | Jonathan Abraham | 2018 |
| Natasha Cornejo | University of Arizona | John Jewett | 2019 |
| Willow Coyote-Maestas | University of Minnesota | Daniel Schmidt | 2018 |
| Zachary Criss | Baylor College of Medicine | Noah Shroyer | 2016 |
| Mariexcel Davatolhagh | University of Pennsylvania | Marc Fuccillo | 2017 |
| Roberto Efraín Díaz | University of California, San Francisco | James Fraser | 2019 |
| Christopher Duncan-Lewis | University of California, Berkeley | Britt Glaunsinger | 2017 |
| Joel Encarnacion-Rosado | New York University Langone Health | Alec Kimmelman | 2019 |
| Osatohanmwen Enogieru | University of California, San Francisco | Kathleen Giacomini | 2016 |
| Sara Espinosa | University of Colorado Denver | Rui Zhao | 2017 |
| Irma Fernandez | Cornell University | Robert Weiss | 2019 |
| Abel Ferrel | Stanford University | John Boothroyd | 2018 |
| Anabel Flores | University of Michigan | Christin Carter-Su | 2016 |
| Antoinette Foster | Oregon Health & Science University | Ben Emery | 2016 |
| Stacy Fosu | Ohio State University | David Nagib | 2016 |
| Samantha Francis Stuart | University of California, Davis | Crystal Ripplinger | 2017 |
| Tavita Garrett | Oregon Health & Science University | Laurence Trussell | 2019 |
| Devin Gibbs | University of California, Los Angeles | April Pyle | 2019 |
| Brian Glenn St Hilaire | Baylor College of Medicine | Erez Lieberman Aiden | 2019 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | Stanford University | Joshua Elias | 2017 |
| Erik Gonzalez-Leon | University of California, Irvine | Kyriacos Athanasiou | 2018 |
| Sara Haile | The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Cynthia Wolberger | 2018 |
| Brea Hampton | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Mark Heise | 2019 |
| Asante Hatcher | Baylor College of Medicine | Jeffrey Noebels | 2016 |
| Cody Hernandez | The University of Chicago | Jonathan Staley | 2018 |
| Gloria Hernandez | University of California, Los Angeles | Luisa Iruela-Arispe | 2019 |
| Jamie Hernandez | University of Washington | Kim Woodrow | 2019 |
| Nicole Hernandez | University of Pennsylvania | Heath Schmidt | 2017 |
| Andrew Hinton | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Peter Mucha | 2019 |
| Kristina Holme | University of Michigan | Scott Pletcher | 2019 |
| Jesse Holt | University of California, Irvine School of Medicine | Medha Pathak | 2019 |
| Cherice Hughes-Oliver | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | Robin Queen | 2018 |
| Brittany Jenkins | University of Georgia | Melissa Ann Davis | 2017 |
| Brittany Johnson | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | Russell Debose-Boyd | 2018 |
| David Johnson | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory | Alea Mills | 2019 |
| Nia Johnson | University of Michigan | Regina Baucom | 2019 |
| William Jordan | Brown University | Erica Larschan | 2016 |
| Veronica Jove | The Rockefeller University | Leslie B. Vosshall | 2016 |
| Matias Kaplan | Stanford University | Christina Smolke | 2018 |
| Jessica Kohn | Columbia University | Rudy Behnia | 2018 |
| Rose Larios | University of California, San Francisco | Devanand Manoli | 2017 |
| Russell Ledet | New York University | Michael Garabedian | 2016 |
| Lina Leon | University of California, San Francisco | Joseph Bondy-Denomy | 2017 |
| Juanita Limas | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine | Jeanette Cook | 2018 |
| Christine Liu | University of California, Berkeley | Stephan Lammel | 2017 |
| Jose Llongueras | The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | Ulrich Mueller | 2018 |
| Jeremy Lomax | Brown University | Elizabeth Brainerd | 2018 |
| Natasha Lopes Fischer | University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine | Sunny Shin | 2019 |
| Naomi Lopez Caraballo | New York University School of Medicine | Robert Froemke | 2018 |
| Kristine Lyon | Harvard University | Susan Dymecki | 2016 |
| Samar Mahmoud | University of Massachusetts Amherst | Peter Chien | 2019 |
| Vayu Maini-Rekdal | Harvard University | Emily Balskus | 2017 |
| Ernesto Manzo | University of Arizona | Daniela Zarnescu | 2016 |
| Shelsa Marcel | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine | Ian Davis | 2019 |
| Jorge Marchand | University of California-Berkeley | Michelle Chang | 2016 |
| Leslie Mateo | Stanford University School of Medicine | Alistair Boettiger | 2019 |
| Allatah Mekile | The Johns Hopkins University | Rajini Rao | 2017 |
| Matthew Mendoza | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | Lenora Volk | 2017 |
| Kelly Montgomery | University of California, San Francisco | Jason Gestwicki | 2019 |
| Daniel Morales-Mantilla | Baylor College of Medicine | Katherine King | 2019 |
| Marco Mravic | University of California, San Francisco | William DeGrado | 2017 |
| Santiago Naranjo | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Tyler E. Jacks | 2016 |
| Eric Nealy | University of Washington | James Olson | 2017 |
| Andres Nevarez | University of California, San Diego | Nan Hao | 2016 |
| Kavin Nunez | Brown University | Karla Kuan | 2017 |
| Jessica Ochoa | University of California, Los Angeles | Todd Yeates | 2018 |
| Ahmad Omar | California Institute of Technology | Zhen-Gang Wang | 2016 |
| Tolu Omokehinde | Vanderbilt University Medical Center | Rachelle Johnson | 2018 |
| Titilayo Omotade | Yale University | Craig Roy | 2017 |
| Gloria Ortiz | University of California, Berkeley | Evan Miller | 2017 |
| Sebastien Ortiz | University of Wisconsin-Madison | Christina Hull | 2017 |
| Beatriz Otero | University of Michigan | Priscilla Tucker | 2016 |
| Alan Pacheco | Boston University | Daniel Segre | 2017 |
| Gian Parico | University of California, Santa Cruz | Carrie Partch | 2018 |
| Carlos Paz | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | James Collins,III | 2017 |
| Jennifer Pena | Harvard University | Simon Dove | 2016 |
| Brian Perez | Stanford University | Ashby Morrison | 2017 |
| Ferra Pinnock | Cornell University | Susan Daniel | 2019 |
| Donna Poscablo | University of California, Santa Cruz | Camilla Forsberg | 2019 |
| Sadi Quinones | Tufts University | Chris Dulla | 2019 |
| Michael Rale | Princeton University | Sabine Petry | 2017 |
| Alyson Ramirez | Harvard University | Mansi Srivastava | 2016 |
| Román Ramos Báez | University of Washington | Jennifer Nemhauser | 2019 |
| Ericka Reed | Pennsylvania State University | Timothy Miyashiro | 2017 |
| Josue Regalado | The Rockefeller University | Priya Rajasethupathy | 2019 |
| Christopher Reid | Harvard Medical School | Corey Harwell | 2019 |
| Susana Restrepo | University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine | Jason Aoto | 2018 |
| Jaime Reyes | Baylor College of Medicine | Margaret Goodell | 2018 |
| Kristina Rivera | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine | Scott Magness | 2019 |
| Fernando Rodriguez | University of California, Berkeley | Michael Rape | 2016 |
| Christina Roman | The University of Chicago | Joseph Piccirilli | 2017 |
| Gabriel Romero | Oregon Health & Science University | Laurence Trussell | 2017 |
| Barbara Romero Duenas | University of Delaware | Ramona Neunuebel | 2017 |
| Stefany Rubio | University of California, Santa Cruz | Lindsay Hinck | 2018 |
| Eugenia Salcedo | University of California, San Francisco | Charles Craik | 2016 |
| Emily Sales | University of Oregon | Chris Doe | 2016 |
| Ivan Santiago | Harvard University | Matthew Pecot | 2016 |
| Luis Schachner | Northwestern University | Neil Kelleher | 2017 |
| DeQuantarius Speed | The University of Chicago | Jean T. Greenberg | 2017 |
| Marc Sprague-Piercy | University of California, Irvine | Rachel Martin | 2019 |
| Jacob Steenwyk | Vanderbilt University | Antonis Rokas | 2019 |
| Donte Stevens | University of California, San Diego | Samara Reck-Peterson | 2019 |
| Tigist Tamir | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Michael Ben Major | 2016 |
| Gregory Telian | University of California, Berkeley | Hillel Adesnik | 2016 |
| Phillip Thomas | New York University School of Medicine | Susan Logan | 2017 |
| Lauren Thurlow | University of California, Los Angeles | Tracy Johnson | 2018 |
| Alexis Toliver | Brown University | Carlos Aizenman | 2019 |
| Alfredo Valencia | Harvard University | Cigall Kadoch | 2017 |
| Miriam Van Dyke | The Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University | Tene Lewis | 2018 |
| Cesar Vargas | The Rockefeller University | Erich Jarvis | 2018 |
| Erick Velasquez | University of California, Los Angeles | Jorge Torres | 2019 |
| José Velilla | Harvard University | Rachelle Gaudet | 2019 |
| Apple Vollmers | University of California, Santa Cruz | Susan Carpenter | 2019 |
| Charles Washington | The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine | Carole Ober | 2018 |
| Shawn Williams | Brown University | David Rand | 2017 |
| Patricka Williams-Simon | University of Missouri | Elizabeth King | 2018 |
| Kellie Williford | Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | Danny Winder | 2019 |
| Kurtresha Worden | University of California, Berkeley | Kaoru Saijo | 2018 |
| Fauna Yarza | University of California, San Francisco | Seemay Chou | 2019 |
Program Alumni
Gilliam Fellows
HHMI Gilliam Fellows
2018 Gilliam Fellows Meeting
Jonathan Abraham, M.D., Ph.D.
Jonathan Abraham, M.D., Ph.D.
Instructor, Harvard Medical School
2016 Early Independence Award Recipient
2007 Gilliam Fellow
Elizabeth Gichana
2015 Fellow, University of Michigan
Gabriella Fernandez-Cuervo
2015 Fellow, University of Arizona
Jose Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Jose Rodriguez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
2007 Gilliam Fellow
Brian Castellano
2013 Fellow, University of California Berkeley
Silvia Kariuki
2010 Fellow, University of Chicago
Ryan Dosumu-Johnson
2009 Fellow, Harvard University
