From left, Skylar Grayson, Andreas Guerrero and Noah Kaplan are three Whitman College graduates who recently received research fellowship grants from the National Science Foundation out of a pool of 12,000 applicants.

WALLA WALLA — Skylar Grayson, Andreas Guerrero and Noah Kaplan — all graduates of Whitman College — were recently selected as recipients of National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship grants.

The three were chosen from a pool of 12,000 applicants, according to a news release from the college. Recipients will receive direct funding for three years, followed by a two-year teaching assistantship. The funding covers research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The NSF grants fund researchers rather than projects or institutions and provide support for the graduate education of students who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM or STEM education.

Grayson, a 2021 graduate, is pursuing her Ph.D. in astrophysics at Arizona State University.

“My work is focused on understanding the role supermassive black holes play in galaxy evolution,” said Grayson, who majored in astronomy and astrophysics at Whitman.

Since 2002, 44 Whitman College graduates have been recipients of the NSF Fellowship grant and almost 50 have been named as honorable mentions.

Guerrero, a 2020 graduate, is working toward his Ph.D. in evolutionary biology at Oregon State University and plans to investigate fungal-endosymbiont interactions. He also plans to develop curricula for children to learn about mycology.

“By introducing children to mycology early, I hope to inspire them to continue to learn about fungi in college and beyond,” said Guerrero, who double-majored in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology — BBMB — and philosophy at Whitman.

The third fellowship grant recipient, Kaplan, graduated from Whitman in 2022 and majored in computer science. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in computer architecture at the University of Michigan.

“I’m still trying to find what subtopics interest me in the field of computer architecture, and I am looking forward to learning more about different research directions,” Kaplan said.