KINGSTON, R.I. – April 21, 2026 – Three students from the University of Rhode Island were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program for the 2026-27 academic year.
David Amirsadri and Colby Constantine, who earned bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering from URI last spring, and Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno, who graduated from URI in December 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in marine biology, were among the 2,500 students chosen out of nearly 14,000 applicants.
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is one of the nation’s most prestigious fellowship programs, providing three years of financial support to graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to make significant contributions to scientific innovation.
David Amirsadri: proactive approach
David Amirsadri ’25had a penchant for seeking answers to challenging questions during his undergraduate studies at URI. As Amirsadri’s research mentor for two years, Ryan Poling-Skutvik, assistant professor of chemical, biomolecular, and materials engineering, and assistant professor of physics, appreciated his thirst for knowledge.
“David was detailed-oriented, determined, and driven to conduct high-quality research,” said Poling-Skutvik. “He was proactive and independent, constantly seeking out the fundamental physics and chemistry underlying his experiments by asking insightful and challenging questions or conducting thorough and deep literature reviews.”
After joining Poling-Skutvik’s research group as a RI-INBRE Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow in 2023, Amirsadri began an independent research project on synthesizing and characterizing the stability and structure of polymer-grafted gold nanoparticles as next-generation sensors for environmental and biological contaminants. His research resulted in a peer-reviewed article in 2025 in Macromolecules. Amirsadri also presented his research at conferences.
“My experiences at URI were exceptional,” said Amirsadri, who is from East Greenwich, Rhode Island. “I learned how to conduct high-quality science and how to present my work.”
As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, Amirsadri is pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, where his research focuses on non-Newtonian fluid dynamics and elastic turbulence.
While unsure if he wants to pursue a career in academia or industry, Amirsadri said he aspires to advance societal understanding of soft matter and complex fluids, contribute to research and development efforts aimed at improving the environment and human health, and utilize his technical training to influence and inform public policy.
Colby Constantine: applied research
Like Amirsadri, Colby Constantine’25 also joined Poling-Skutvik’s research team through the SURF program.
“Colby shadowed a graduate student to learn how to prepare and design a class of biomimetic materials known as polymer-linked emulsions,” said Poling-Skutvik.
Constantine then conducted independent experiments on nanoparticle transport through these materials to identify whether they produced quantitatively similar transport characteristics to those observed in biology. This provided Constantine with experience in optical microscopy and particle tracking algorithms. His research was published in two peer-reviewed journals.
After a productive year in Poling-Skutvik’s lab, Constantine secured a competitive summer internship at the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., where he characterized peptides and small molecule formulations for oral delivery.
Two years later, Constantine graduated magna cum laude from URI and is pursuing his Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware.
“This program enables me to extend the soft-matter and drug-delivery research foundation I developed at URI toward understanding how transport limitations, immune response, and bacterial clearance interact in chronic pulmonary infections,” said Constantine, who is from Leicester, Massachusetts.
Constantine plans to return to the pharmaceutical industry after earning his doctorate.
“My long-term goal is to improve pulmonary drug delivery and help engineer biologics and peptide therapies that can be administered orally rather than by injection, improving patient compliance and reducing barriers to global access,” said Constantine.
Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno: persistence pays off
Soon after transferring to URI in the spring semester of her freshman year in 2021, Alexandra Elizabeth Sinno ’24 was awarded a NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship.
As a Hollings Scholar, Sinno conducted a fully funded 10-week internship in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, and one week in Guam. Using software for spatial modeling and statistical analysis, Sinno evaluated benthic damage and debris following a typhoon.
From September 2022 to December 2024, Sinno conducted research in Professor Susanne Menden-Deuer’s Plankton Ecology Laboratory in the Graduate School of Oceanography. She also completed three research cruises, totaling more than 21 days at sea.
“Ms. Sinno is an enthusiastic student, who has acquired skills in a range of oceanographic and microbiological techniques that have prepared her well for cutting-edge research in many scientific disciplines,” said Menden-Deuer.
Sinno also presented research at conferences, did an independent study on microbial abundances in coral systems in Bermuda, and performed DNA extractions on marine microbes in Associate Professor Roxanne Beinart’s lab at GSO.
As much as Sinno accomplished at URI, her path to graduate school was far from certain.
“Due to limited funds, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program was the only way I could afford graduate school,” said Sinno, who will begin her pursuit of a Ph.D. in biology, with a concentration in ecological, environmental, and evolutionary biology, this fall at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
After she completes her doctorate, Sinno would like to conduct post-doctoral research or pursue a research faculty position at a university.