Awards Opportunities

The Texas A&M University Office of Graduate and Professional Studies annually presents four awards to graduate students who have excelled academically, as student leaders, and have a had a positive impact on the Texas A&M University Graduate Community. Click the links below to view nomination information and past award recipients.

Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award

U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship

Texas A&M Distinguished Dissertation Award

The Montgomery Award

The Graduate Student Research and Presentation Travel Award provides graduate students with educational and professional development opportunities through reimbursing up to $750 for travel expenses associated with academic conferences and research projects in the United States and abroad.

2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

Congratulations to our Genetics and Genomics students, Emmarie Alexander, from Dr. Bill Murphy’s laboratory, and Aaron DeSalvio, from Dr. Seth Murray’s laboratory, on being selected for the prestigious 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)! Emmarie and Aaron are two of 6 winners from Texas A&M, with only 3 in the Life Sciences at Texas A&M! 

Emmarie is interested in using genomic tools to investigate the complex evolutionary history of mammals by way of their genome to their phylogeographic structure. She is particularly interested in mammals of conservation concern, such as pangolins and felids. Currently, Emmarie is parsing the evolutionary origins and structure of mammalian sex chromosomes. 

Aaron’s goal is to uncover the applicability of temporal spectral data to predict agronomically relevant traits in maize (corn) using a combination of high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) data captured by unoccupied aerial systems (drones) and genomic marker data. His current project is focused on performing single plant analysis, with the intent of uncovering differences in the performance of genetically identical plants. The goal is to enable single plant selection, which could greatly reduce the plant breeding cycle’s turnover time and increase genetic gains more rapidly. Additionally, he aims to enable researchers across the globe to implement HTP into their programs through methods-based publications and demonstrations using open-access data collected on our lab’s agricultural experiments in College Station.

We are so excited to celebrate this achievement with you!

2023 Association of Former Students Distinguished Graduate Student Award

The Distinguished Graduate Student Award represents one of  Texas A&M’s highest honors for outstanding achievements by a graduate student in research. Each year, only a handful of graduate students are recognized with the coveted award that honors their important contributions to Texas A&M’s world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. Students are nominated by their faculty advisors or their departments — an accomplishment in and of itself, officials say, due to the strenuous eligibility requirements. The award recipients are chosen by a panel of reviewers that includes faculty and administrators and recognize the top tier of Texas A&M’s graduate students for exemplifying our core values in classrooms and laboratories. These awards have been presented annually since 1965, thanks to generous gifts to The Association of Former Students’ Annual Fund.

Michelle Jonika Michelle Jonika is a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics and Genomics under the advisement of biology professor Dr. Heath Blackmon. Prior to her graduate work, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M in forensic and investigative science, studying forensic genetics under the guidance of Dr. Aaron Tarone. Her graduate research at Texas A&M focuses on the evolution of genome structure and sex chromosomes using computational and machine-learning methods. While at Texas A&M, Jonika completed an internship at Bayer Crop Science, where she developed a statistical framework to identify interactions between loci in crops of interest and completed a computational biology internship at PetDx, a biotech startup company, where she applied machine learning approaches to high-complexity clinical data sets to predict canine cancer types. Jonika is the recipient of the Interdisciplinary Program in Genetics and Genomics Research Excellence Award (2022), Texas A&M’s Data Science Ambassador Fellowship (2022-2023), Texas A&M Graduate and Professional School’s Montgomery Award (2023), and numerous research presentation awards. She has published four first-author papers, seven collaborative papers, and six popular science articles. Jonika has mentored seven undergraduate biology and genetics students, several of whom published their work and have pursued graduate and professional school or careers in industry. Jonika defended her dissertation in January 2023 and will be graduating in May 2023.

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Jonika here: https://michellejonika.github.io/

2023 Montgomery Award

The Montgomery Award is awarded to student leaders making major contributions to the academic and professional opportunities, and quality of life of their fellow graduate and professional students here at Texas A&M. Whether through demonstrated leadership in recognized graduate student groups or service organizations, students must show their dedication to serving Aggie graduate and professional students in addition to excellent academics and scholarship.

2022 Montgomery Award

2022 U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship Award

Fall 2022 Genetics Graduate Student Association Conference Award

Spring 2022 Genetics Graduate Student Association Conference Award

2022 Texas Genetics Society Meeting Awards

2023 Genetics and Genomics Recruitment Symposium Oral Presentations

2022 Genetics and Genomics Recruitment Symposium Oral Presentations

2023 Genetics and Genomics Graduate Student Awards

2022 Genetics and Genomics Graduate Student Awards

2021 Genetics and Genomics Graduate Student Awards

2020 Genetics and Genomics Graduate Student Awards