Robert L. And Mary L. Sproull University Fellowships
The Sproull Fellowship is the most prestigious awarded by the University of Rochester.
Robert L. Sproull is a distinguished physicist and was the University's seventh president. While in office, he oversaw significant growth of degree programs, faculty size, laboratories, hospital facilities, and other campus structures. The fellowship program named in his honor reflects his commitment to intellectual excellence.
Each year there is a University-wide competition for the ten to twelve Sproull Fellowships awarded to incoming students who pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Rochester. More than 35 Ph.D. programs may select nominees for the Sproull Fellowship from among those who have applied for admission. A committee of faculty members evaluates those nominated, and the final selection is made by the University Dean of Graduate Studies.
The careers of Sproull Fellows testify to the program's success. Many are now faculty members at highly ranked universities, including Yale, Duke, Cornell, and Stanford, among several others. However, Sproull Fellows' careers have brought them to a wide variety of institutions outside academia. To name a few, the organizations at which Fellows now work include the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the World Bank, Microsoft, Corning, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the NASA Ames Research Center.
Each year former Sproull Fellows come to Rochester to attend a reception in honor of their accomplishments. They represent the wide variety of Ph.D. programs in which the Fellows have received their training. Recent honorees include:
| Sproull Fellow | Rochester Ph.D. Program | Title | Employer |
| Harmit Malik | Biology | Assistant Professor of Genome Sciences | University of Washington |
| Shafer Mahoney | Music Composition | faculty member | The Juilliard School |
| Julie Bentley | Optics | Adjunct Professor of Optics | University of Rochester |
| Jenny Saffran | Brain and Cognitive Sciences | Professor of Psychology | University of Wisconsin |
| Philip Bevilacqua | Chemistry | Professor of Chemistry | Penn State University |
| Jocelyn Neal | Music Theory | Associate Professor of Music | University of North Carolina |
| Sandra Aamodt | Neuroscience | Former Editor in Chief | Nature Neuroscience |
| Douglas Skinner | Business Administration | Gould Professor of Accounting | University of Chicago |
| Julie Boland | Psychology | Associate Professor of Linguistics & Psychology | University of Michigan |
| Tamara Levitz | Musicology | Professor of Musicology | City University of New York |
| John Mellor-Crummey | Computer Science | Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering | Rice University |
| Judith Baggs | Nursing | Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Nursing | Oregon Health and Science University |
| Eric Prebys | Physics | Proton Plan Project Manager | Fermi National Accelerator Research Laboratory |
| Linda Tesar | Economics | Professor and Chair of Economics | University of Michigan |
| Timothy Feddersen | Political Science | Hobbs Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences | Northwestern University |
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