Penn students and alumni awarded Fulbright 2025-26 U.S. Student Program grants
Nineteen have been offered Fulbright awards for the 2025-26 academic year to conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English overseas.
5 min. read
The 17 Penn students and alumni who have been offered 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants are (from left) (top row) Emily R. Antrilli, Leo Biehl, Emmie Chacker, Claire Elliot, Zane Grenoble, and Arielle Hardy; (center row) Theresa Haupt, Timothy Lie, Paul Lin, Henry McDaniel, and Nova Meng; (bottom row) Aleena Parenti, Rajat Ramesh, Elan Roth, Emma Steinheimer, Rachel Swym, and Teresa Xie. Not pictured: Anjalee Bhuyan and Margaret Gerhart.
(Images: Courtesy of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships)
As of early July, 19 University of Pennsylvania students and alumni have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2025-26 academic year. The list includes six members of the Class of 2025, who graduated in May, and three current graduate students.
They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, Nepal, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom.
The Fulbright Program, which has rolling admissions, is the United States government’s flagship international educational exchange program, awarding grants to fund as long as 12 months of international experience. Penn consistently ranks as a “Top-Producing Institution” among those with the highest number of candidates selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
In addition to the 19 recipients, seven Penn affiliates have been named alternates for Fulbright awards during this application cycle. Most of the Penn recipients applied for the Fulbright with support from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Among Penn’s Fulbright grant recipients for 2025-26 are three current graduate students.
Claire Elliot is a doctoral student in religious studies in the School of Arts & Sciences, studying modern Theravada Buddhism, primarily in Thailand and Sri Lanka. She graduated from Penn in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies. She has been offered a Fulbright to research contemporary dreaming practices in Thailand.
Theresa Haupt is a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in bioengineering, concentrating in biomedical devices, from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2024 from Haverford College, which assisted in her Fulbright application. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research at the University of Melbourne in Australia, focusing on the kinematics of patients with lower limb osteoarthritis.
Six of the recipients graduated in May in the Class of 2025.
Leo Biehl earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and political science with a minor in German from the College of Arts & Sciences. He has been offered a Fulbright Community-Based Combined Award to Austria to study housing policy at TU Wien, the Vienna University of Technology, and explore the city’s novel approach to reducing homelessness by working for neunerhaus, an Austrian community organization. He also would teach English at Austrian schools.
Timothy Lie earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research at Universitas Indonesia, exploring the role of mitochondrial DNA variants in dengue severity and investigating how mitochondrial function is permanently altered after dengue virus infection.
Henry McDaniel earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian and East European studies and diplomatic history from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Moldova.
Aleena Parenti earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics with a minor in Chinese language and culture and a certificate in French from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.
Elan Roth earned bachelor’s degree in mathematical logic with a minor in religious studies from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to pursue mathematics research at the University of Waterloo in Canada, building on research in computable algebra, which classifies the difficulty of calculating properties of mathematical objects found in nature.
Among the recipients were alumni who graduated between 2024 and 2017.
Class of 2024
Nova Meng earned a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering with a minor in chemistry from the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research on the foraging behavior of wild bees and honeybees at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Rajat Ramesh earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and history from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to go to Bangalore, India, to study how electronic health record systems can improve tuberculosis reporting and care delivery among rural populations.
Class of 2023
Zane Grenoble graduated from Penn’s dual-degree Huntsman Program in the Wharton School and the College. He has been offered a Fulbright through the Binational Business Program to work in Mexico City while taking international business courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
Class of 2022
Emily R. Antrilli earned a master’s degree in secondary education from the Graduate School of Education. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.
Anjalee Bhuyan earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from the College. She is a fourth-year medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine. Bhuyan was offered a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship in Public Health to conduct research in Bhaktapur, Nepal, on the health impacts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure among brick kiln workers.
Emma Steinheimer earned a master’s degree in education from the Graduate School of Education. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Morocco.
Rachel Swym earned a bachelor’s degree in English with minors in environmental humanities and consumer psychology from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to pursue a master’s of science and health communications degree at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.
Teresa Xie earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in cinema studies from the College. She has been offered the Young Professional Journalist Fulbright to conduct a year-long journalism project in Berlin, examining how the 24-hour culture shapes marginalized communities, which can find refuge in creative spaces after-hours.
Class of 2021
Paul Lin earned a bachelor’s degree in earth science from the College, a master’s degree in computer science from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and a postgraduate degree in GIS and Spatial Analysis from the Weitzman School of Design. He has been offered a Fulbright research scholarship under the U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative Award. He would go to Seoul to work with professors from Korea University and Seoul National University to study the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for optimizing evacuation routes under crises scenarios.
Class of 2017
Margaret Gerhart earned a dual master’s degree in architecture and landscape architecture from the Weitzman School of Design. She was offered a Fulbright to South Korea, hosted by Keimyung University and the Border Peace School, to research and illustrate the landscape of the Korean demilitarized zone.
On the move: Water quality and antimicrobial resistance testing goes mobile
Penn researchers have developed a mobile field laboratory allowing them to test water quality and track antimicrobial resistance in and around San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.
Penn researchers Vanessa and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.
A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Penn student develops a way for computer chips to run more efficiently
Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.
