Image: Congratulations to Olivia Thompson and Julie Tischer for honors they received from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program! Olivia was awarded a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, while Julie received honorable mention for the fellowship award. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Research Program is an extremely competitive program which supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciples. Olivia is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Joy Doran-Peterson (Microbiology) where she is studying ways of enhancing the production of biofuels. Julie is a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Michael Terns (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) where she is investigating CRISPR-Cas systems, RNA-mediated immune systems that protect prokaryotic organisms from viruses and other invaders.