Choose the Right Fellowship for You

We offer a comprehensive fellowship program for USC Dornsife Ph.D. students, including professional development and networking opportunities, as well as a limited number of fellowships for non-USC students.

Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellowship

Open to all USC Dornsife Ph.D. students whose research intersects with environment and sustainability themes, this fellowship includes a spring-semester professional development program and a $6,000 summer stipend to advance recipients’ research. Fellows may also have the opportunity to mentor students from the Wrigley Institute’s REU program. Awardees must be in residence at USC during the spring semester of their award year. (Applications are currently closed, but will reopen in late 2024 for the 2025 cohort.)

Visiting Graduate Research Fellowship

This fellowship supports USC and non-USC graduate students seeking to conduct environmental or sustainability research on Catalina Island. Recipients may apply to waive the cost of housing and waterfront fees at the Wrigley Marine Science Center campus for up to three months during the period from June-September. Visiting graduate researchers receive full waterfront privileges and shared lab space, and live in shared housing with kitchen facilities. Contact Wrigley Institute Executive Director Dr. Jessica Dutton to apply. (Applications are currently closed, but will reopen in late 2024 for the 2025 cohort.)

One Fellow’s Experience

Rucha Wani’s graduate fellowship funded her research on the ecological impacts of ocean-based carbon sequestration.

“I am grateful for the support provided by the Wrigley Institute Fellows program. This opportunity has been monumental to my research progress. With the uncertainty of future climate change brewing anxiety within us, it is motivating to create work that brings us closer to finding solutions.”

Rucha Wani, ocean sciences Ph.D. student and 2023 Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellow
close-up headshot of graduate student Rucha Wani

2024 Graduate Fellows

Zak Breckenridge

Zak Breckenridge

Wrigley Institute Fellow

English

Advisor: Devin Griffiths

Project: Pedagogies of Wonder: Ecology, Aesthetics, and Modern Conservation

Blog: The Lake, the Library, and the Literature of Environmental Crisis: Reading Wallace Stegner in the 21st Century

Jenny Cheung

Yan Yin “Jenny” Cheung

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Marine and Environmental Biology

Advisor: Laura Melissa Guzman

Project: Connecting ecological theory to observational biodiversity data: How does ecosystem stability change across space and time?

Blog: Unraveling the Mysteries of Biodiversity: My Journey into Metacommunity Theory

Maggie Davis

Maggie Davis

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Sociology

Advisor: Andrew Lakoff

Project: Tracing Contours of Risk: Environment and Economy in Appalachia’s Natural Gas Extraction Landscape

Blog: Field Research Along the Mountain Valley Pipeline

Jake Denova

Jacob Denova

Bertics Fellow

Marine and Environmental Biology

Advisor: Suzanne Edmands

Project: Does exposure to sublethal heat and salinity stress increase thermal tolerance in a dynamic environment?

Blog: Feelin’ hot hot hot… How zooplankton survive increasing temperatures

Daria Di Blasi

Daria Di Blasi

Bertics Fellow

Marine and Environmental Biology

Advisor: Jed Fuhrman

Project: RNA Viruses in the Ocean 

Aidan Diamond

Aidan Diamond

Sonosky Fellow

Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture

Advisor: Natania Meeker

Project: “For a Better Future”: Narrative and Hope at the End of the World

Blog: The Other Side of Apocalypse

Maya Gomez-wide

Maya Gomez

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Marine and Environmental Biology

Advisor: Carly Kenkel

Project: Disentangling determinants of growth, calcification and branching in a stony coral

Blog: Tiny sculptors with an immense job: building reefs — Coral morphology and how it changes alongside the environment

Jaden Morales

Jaden Morales

Wrigley Institute Fellow

American Studies and Ethnicity

Advisor: Juan De Lara

Project: Techno-Ecologies of Debt, Disaster, and Dispossession in Puerto Rico

Blog: Petro-States: Race, Fossil Fuels, and Disaster in Puerto Rico and Diaspora

Clarissa Olivar

Clarissa Olivar

Sonosky Fellow

Chemistry

Advisor: Travis J. Williams

Project: Converting Wind Turbine Waste into Pharmaceutically Relevant Molecules

Blog: Transforming Waste into Pharmaceuticals

Juli Panehal

Juliann Panehal

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Earth Sciences

Advisors: Jan Amend, Roman Barco

Project: Oil Spill Impacts on Marine Microbial Ecosystems in Southern California

Blog: Don’t be Crude – Oil Spill Impacts on Marine Microbial Ecosystems in Southern California

Juliana Pinillos

Juliana Pinillos

Sonosky Fellow

Economics

Advisor: Paulina Oliva

Project: The Impact of Slum Upgrading on Natural Disasters’ Vulnerability

Blog: The Long-Term Impact of Slum Upgrading on Vulnerability to Natural Disasters in Medellín

Amber Santoro

Amber Santoro

Sonosky Fellow

History

Advisor: Bill Deverell

Project: Environmental Racism, Displacement and Transportation in L.A.

Blog: Anti-Freeway Fervor in California: Can History Point Us in a More Equitable Direction? 

Maxwell Shiller

Maxwell Shiller

Sonosky Fellow

Classics

Advisor: Christelle Fischer-Bovet

Project: The Rhodian Epicenter: Tracing Relationships between the Rhodian Earthquake (c. 227 BCE) and Hellenistic History

Blog: Ancient Energy: Earthquakes, Floods, and Food in the Hellenistic World

Rachel So

Rachel So

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Earth Sciences

Advisor: Sarah Feakins

Project: Temperature and hydroclimate change in Utah over glacial cycles of the last 200,000 years

Blog: Climate of the ice ages: How water availability in the southwestern US has changed over geological time

Yeshvi Tomar

Yeshvi Tomar

Sonosky Fellow

Chemistry

Advisor: Surya Prakash

Project: Improving upon iron electrodes for rechargeable alkaline batteries

Blog: Harnessing the Power of Iron: A Promising Future for Clean Energy Storage with Iron-Air Batteries

Guanyizhuo Yao

Wrigley Institute Fellow

Anthropology

Advisor: Nancy Lutkehaus

Project: Tar Pits and Time: Unveiling Los Angeles from the Depths of the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene

Blog; Oil, Mammoths, and Museums: Cross-Cultural Insights into Petroleum’s Legacy

Previous Graduate Fellows

  • Teagan Baiotto

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine & Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Laura Melissa Guzman

    Project: “Modeling the role that rapid, adaptive evolution can play in conservation decision making under climate change”

     

    Nancy Bush

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Megan Fieser

    Project: “Understanding dechlorination of PVC plastic: applications to polymer upcycling”

     

    Inessa Chandra

    Bertics Fellow

    Marine & Environmental Biology

    Advisors: Andy Gracey, Sergey Nuzhdin

    Project: “The extrinsic and intrinsic signals of aging in giant kelp”

     

    Vanshika Fotedar

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Economics

    Advisor: Paulina Oliva

    Project: “Energy policy of states: A welfare analysis of preference”

     

    Justin Gaffney

    Bertics Fellow

    Marine & Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Jim Moffett

    Project: “Sensing stress in seaweeds”

     

    Kyla Kelly

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine & Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Dave Hutchins

    Project: “Identifying signs of light stress as a tool to survey marine ecosystem health in two globally important marine cyanobacteria”

     

    Lauren Kelly

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    History

    Advisor: Bill Deverell

    Project: “Troubled Waters: A Post-1930 Environmental History of the Owens Valley”

     

    Charles Lehnen

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Biological Sciences, Anthropology

    Advisor: Craig Stanford

    Project: “Tortoise Terraforming: Can Introduced Galapagos Tortoises Restore Santa Fe Island’s Ecosystem?”

     

    Gaea Morales

    Sonosky Fellow

    International Relations

    Advisor: Wayne Sandholtz

    Project: “Agents of Mass Construction: Cities Bridging Local and Global Environmental Governance”

     

    Adib Mustofa

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine & Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Carly Kenkel

    Project: “Illuminating Genetic Population Structure and Symbiont Composition of Acropora millepora Coral in Indonesia”

    Learn more about Adib’s research

     

    Rice Rander

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Travis Williams

    Project: “Sustainable Hydrogen and Fertilizer from Ethanol”

     

    Obin Sturm

    Sonosky Fellow

    Earth Sciences

    Advisor: Sam Silva

    Project: “Data-driven discovery of symmetries and conserved properties in air quality models”

     

    Leah Tieger

    Sonosky Fellow

    English

    Advisor: David St. John

    Project: “Rain, Wind, Wildfire Ash: The Santa Susana Field Lab and Community Risk Perceptions”

     

    Ann Tran

    Sonosky Fellow

    American Studies

    Advisor: George Sanchez

    Project: “The Ocean Remembers: A Transpacific History of the Fishing Boat”

     

    Rucha Wani

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Earth Sciences

    Advisor: Will Berelson

    Project: “The Fate of Marine Particles during Carbon Sequestration”

     

    Aviva Wolf-Jacobs

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Spatial Sciences

    Advisor: John Wilson

    Project: “Scoring the Cooling Potential of Public Parks in Metropolitan Los Angeles: A Geospatial Analysis”

  • Thabassum Ahammad

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Stephen Bradforth

    Project: “Photocatalytic Systems for Generating Solar Fuels”

     

    Melody Aleman

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Jed Fuhrman

    Project: “Size Matters: Exploring the potential contribution of marine particles to total virus production”

     

    Inessa Chandra

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Andy Gracey

    Project: “Time to Dive into Kelp” (Kelp circadian rhythms)

     

    Yema Conteh

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Psychology

    Advisor: Wändi Bruine de Bruin

    Project: “Los Angeles County Residents’ Experience with Extreme Heat and Climate Change Concern”

     

    Ran Duan

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Dave Hutchins

    Project: “Long-term physiological and transcriptomic adaption of marine cyanobacterium Crocosphaera watsonii to iron limitation and ocean warming.”

     

    Lanja Karadaghi

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Richard Brutchey

    Project: “Recycling Ionic Liquids for Sustainable Manufacturing of Nanomaterials”

     

    Lauren Kelly

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    History

    Advisor: Bill Deverell

    Project: “Imperiled Landscapes: The History of Environmental Harm and Advocacy in the Owens Valley”

     

    CJ Koch

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: GK Surya Prakash

    Project: “Integrated Carbon Capture and Conversion to Renewable Fuels and Feedstocks with Heterogeneous Catalysts”

     

    Sophia Kosloski

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Megan Fieser

    Project: “Designing Rare Earth Metal Catalysts for the Synthesis of Recyclable Rubbers”

     

    Lauren Lutzke

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Psychology

    Advisor: Joe Árvai

    Project: “Fake news interventions: Can inducing certain emotions reduce one’s likelihood of spreading misinformation about climate change online?”

     

    Daniel Olivares-Zambrano

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Carly Kenkel

    Project: “Fine scale genetic differentiation in Breviolum muscatenei endosymbionts of Anthopleura spp. along the intertidal”

     

    Danny Osorio

    Wrigley Institute Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Laura Gomez-Consarnau

    Project: “Sun loving bacteria in the ocean-air interphase”

     

    Maria Ruggeri

    Bertics Fellow

    Marine and Environmental Biology

    Advisor: Carly Kenkel

    Project: “Thermal variability and symbiosis in the intertidal – How anemones and their algal partners deal with extreme environments”

     

    Adam Samuel

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Smaranda Marinescu

    Project: “Closing the Carbon Cycle: Renewably Converting CO2 for Energy Storage”

     

    Sara Spears

    Sonosky Fellow

    Chemistry

    Advisor: Sri Narayan

    Project: “Iron Electrodeposition from an Aqueous Sulfate Bath”

Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellows are generously funded through the USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellowship, the Victoria J. Bertics Graduate Fellowship Fund, and the Diane Sonosky Montgomery and Jerol Sonosky Graduate Fellowship for Environmental Sustainability Research.