Chemistry education research doctoral student awarded NSF fellowship

Alexandra (Allie) Brandriet, a second year doctoral student in chemistry education research at Miami University, has been awarded a fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

She is one of 2,000 students nationwide to receive the award, which recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees.

The Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) offers three years of support with a $30,000 annual stipend and a $10,500 cost-of-education allowance.

Brandreit joined Stacey Lowery Bretz’s chemistry education research group in 2009. Her dissertation research focuses on investigating student misconceptions about chemistry – specifically oxidation-reduction reactions — with a goal of identifying flaws in oxidation-reduction education and improvement of curriculum design.

This is the first year that graduate students in STEM education and learning research have been eligible to apply for the prestigious fellowship, according to Lowery Bretz. Brandriet is one of seven recipients of the GRFP fellowship nationwide in science education research. She is “literally the first and only graduate student in the country to earn this fellowship as a doctoral student in chemistry who conducts chemistry education research,” Lowery Bretz said.