Student Fellowship Program

The Challenge

Human health and the environment are inseparably connected. Understanding and managing interconnections is crucial for addressing global challenges such as climate change, clean water, food availability, and air quality. Microorganisms play a key role in this goal; they inhabit and move between all types of ecosystems and environments where they assume various functions essential to life. The cyanobacteria of the oceans account for most of the oxygen we breathe, nitrogen-fixing bacteria make agricultural production possible, and microorganisms regulate the immune system and bodily functions of their living hosts. Because of the vast scope of microbial function, microbiome researchers study environments as varied as the human gut, wastewater, and urban soils; and they apply numerous methods from molecular biology, biochemistry, engineering, physics, and computer science. Hence, cross-disciplinary engagement is critical to develop effective and innovative approaches that utilize interconnected microbial systems to effectively promote environmental, agricultural, and human health on local and global scales. Such collective effort is challenged by disciplinary divides, which include differences in standards, language, and scope of investigated questions. This divide may reduce efficiency of proposed solutions and hinder the development of innovative breakthroughs that are needed to solve some of the most challenging tasks of our time.

Our Mission

The fellowship program provides an innovative research, training, and outreach program that fosters cross-disciplinary exchange and collaboration in microbiome research at University of Maryland, College Park. Our aim is to create a core group of students, researchers, and faculty who work together to integrate knowledge across disciplines to promote evidence-based discoveries and innovation for sustainable development built on microbial systems. Funded by a UMD Grand Challenges Grant, the fellowship program is open to graduate students across UMD who work in the intersection of microbial dynamics, engineering, computing, biochemistry, and policy. The fellowship prepares students to collaborate in cross-disciplinary teams and to initiate projects that utilize microbial systems across scales to translate scientific principles into transformative action. 

The Program

An interdisciplinary cohort of eight graduate students across UMD colleges and schools will be trained in team science and cross-disciplinary system approaches that are essential to advance innovation through microbiome research. Via scientific presentations and a capstone panel organized by the cohort, fellows will gain a comprehensive overview of the breadth of the field and develop an understanding of how their own research can be integrated for impactful solutions. 

Activities:

• Program duration: May–December 2026 (see detailed schedule at end of page)
• Kick-off meeting: May 26, 2026
• Six Workshops: Team Science, Systems Thinking, Project Management, Communication, Science and Society, and Giving and Receiving Feedback (biweekly in summer and final WS at program end)
• Regular cohort team meetings (virtual; biweekly to monthly in frequency based on demand)
• Biweekly Microsocial seminar with alternating fellow speakers and invited speakers; fellows will help with seminar organization.
• Capstone: fellows will organize a panel discussion (1.5 hour panel), where they select topic, interview and invite panelists, and run the panel event; taking place mid-November 2026.

Fellowship amount: 

$7,500 as a one-time award paid to each fellow at program start. Additional performance-based bonus payment at program end (between about $200 to $800).

Program leads and contacts:

Gabi Steinbach, Associate Research Scientist in Biology (gabis@umd.edu)

Stephanie Yarwood, Associate Professor in Environmental Science and Technology (syarwood@umd.edu).

Please reach out to Gabi and Stephanie with any questions about the program.

Application Information: