MSE Grad Student Awarded Postgraduate Abroad Fellowship
July 1, 2022 - UC Irvine materials science and engineering graduate student Anna Gonzalez Rosell is one of 100 students to receive the La Caixa Postgraduate Abroad Fellowship from the La Caixa Foundation. A collaboration with Spain’s CaixaBank, the foundation is dedicated to supporting social initiatives through several prestigious fellowship programs.
The postgraduate abroad fellowship, which received over a thousand applicants this year, is awarded to Spanish or Portuguese citizens who want to pursue a master’s or doctoral degree outside of their country of origin. Fellows may carry out their postgraduate studies at universities in Europe, North America or the Asia-Pacific region. Candidates are selected for the potential impact of their proposals and receive funding for up to two academic years.
Gonzalez Rosell is from Vilafranca del Penedès in Catalonia, Spain. She first came to UCI as a Balsells Fellow in 2019. The Balsells Fellowship program, established at UCI in 1995, helps finance students from Catalonia who want to complete a graduate degree in engineering or computer sciences at UCI.
Gonzalez Rosell conducts research under the advisement of Stacy Copp, assistant professor of materials science and engineering. Her research focuses on studying the structure and optical properties of DNA-stabilized silver nanoclusters, or unique nanomaterials, and developing these to help detect cancers and other diseases in the body. Gonzalez Rosell aims to improve limited deep tissue imaging in order to diagnose these serious illnesses more accurately.
The fellowship funding will help cover the expenses of Gonzalez Rosell’s fifth year of study at UCI where she will continue her research with the hopes that it can be applied toward biomedical applications such as tissue imaging. Her ultimate goal after graduation is to find work as a research and development engineer in the industry.
“Personally, receiving such a big fellowship is a reward for hard work and more motivation to continue working on my research project and developing my skills as a scientist,” said Gonzalez Rosell.
– Yuika Yoshida
