Texas A&M Announces the 2025 U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship Award Winners

COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional School has announced the recipients of the U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship for 2025. This prestigious fellowship recognizes outstanding doctoral students who demonstrate exceptional scholarship, teaching and mentoring, honoring Senator Gramm’s dedication to academics, leadership and public service.

Senator Phil Gramm, who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, served as an economics professor at Texas A&M University from 1966 to 1978 before transitioning to a distinguished political career. He represented Texas’ 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives and later served as a U.S. Senator. Currently, he is the senior advisor at U.S. Policy Metrics and a senior partner of Gramm Partners.

The 2025 awardees will each receive a personalized certificate and a $5,000 fellowship to support their ongoing research and academic pursuits. Awardees will be honored at an invite-only ceremony on Thursday, October 30, 2025.

2025 U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship Award Winners

Ryan Blanchard

College of Engineering – Department of Biomedical Engineering

Under the advisement of Dr. Tanmay Lele, Ryan Blanchard researches chemotherapy resistance among cancer patients in hopes of improving outcomes. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Texas A&M. In his doctoral reasearch, Blanchard investigates specifically how polyploid giant cancer cells, which can grow to over ten times larger than normal cancer cells and contribute to therapy resistance and cancer recurrence. He has published four peer-reviewed articles and presented his research at national conferences. Dedicated to teaching, Blanchard has served as a graduate lecturer and teaching assistant for three engineering laboratory courses, instructing over 250 students. He has also held leadership roles in the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student Association and mentored seven undergraduate researchers, many of whom have won university-wide awards. After completing his Ph.D., Blanchard plans to pursue a career in biotechnology research and development, focusing on translational therapies for cancer patients. 

Tzu-Hsuan Chao

College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Chemistry

Tzu-Hsuan Chao uses computational chemistry and machine learning to tackle challenges such as protein modeling and material property prediction, under the guidance of Dr. Daniel Tabor. Chao holds bachelor's degrees in plant pathology and microbiology from National Taiwan University and a master's in chemistry from National Cheng Kung University, where his research on electrocatalysis led to a first-author publication and several collaborative papers. His doctoral work focuses on applying machine learning to key chemical problems, resulting in two first-author publications and a forthcoming manuscript on mechanochemistry. Chao has mentored two undergraduates in computational chemistry, inspiring their pursuit of graduate studies. He has been active in the Taiwanese Student Association as fundraising manager and treasurer for two years and has promoted chemistry outreach by presenting demonstrations at local high schools. Additionally, he has taught general and physical chemistry labs and served as a teaching assistant for graduate quantum chemistry, aiming to make physical chemistry more accessible for students.

Megan Copeland

College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Biology

Megan Copeland combines research in genome evolution and bioinformatics with computational tool building under the supervision of Dr. Heath Blackmon. She holds bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and English from Texas State University and an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Montana. Her doctoral research investigates patterns of genome evolution across diverse systems. In addition, she develops computational tools and leverages large-scale genomic datasets to address both fundamental and applied questions in evolutionary biology. Her work has led to a first-author publication – a chromosome-level genome assembly of the southern pine beetle – in Royal Society Open Science. Copeland has earned recognition with first-place awards at the 2025 Texas Genetics Society Conference and the 2023 Ecological Integration Symposium, as well as a $2,000 research and travel grant. Dedicated to teaching and mentorship, Copeland has served as a teaching assistant in biology and experimental design courses, earning excellent student evaluations, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students in bioinformatics, research and professional development in STEM.

Alexandra E. LaGrand

College of Arts and Sciences – Department of English

Alexandra LaGrand researches genderfluid performances in the British Romantic period under the supervision of Dr. Susan Egenolf. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina and a master’s degree in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. Exploring the intersections of textual studies, women’s and gender studies, and theatre history, her dissertation explores character types in Romantic women actresses' roles and how such roles conveyed genderfluidity and British masculinity during an era of empire. She has published two journal articles, has two forthcoming essays and has launched a digital humanities site, Points Like A Man: The Shakespearean Breeches Performance Catalogue, for which she has collected over 8,000 performance records. LaGrand’s research has earned fellowships, grants and international recognition through an Honorable Mention for the 2024 Emerging Researcher Open Scholarship Award. She teaches both writing and literature courses, has led a student organization, regularly mentors graduate student peers, and has served on faculty advisory boards for both the Glasscock Center and the Center of Digital Humanities Research, as well as an international research group for interdisciplinary research in literary studies.

Sarah E. Miller

College of Engineering – Department of Biomedical Engineering

Sarah Miller, under the supervision of Dr. Akhilesh Gaharwar, researches wound treatment materials to improve survival outcomes in patients experiencing noncompressible hemorrhage. She holds a bachelor’s from Carnegie Mellon University, where she double-majored in chemical and biomedical engineering and became interested in biomedical research while volunteering as an EMT. Her dissertation focuses on the design and evaluation of novel hemostatic materials to provide emergency treatment for wounds in which compression is ineffective, particularly in battlefield and postpartum hemorrhage. She has a first-author publication, another under review, and has contributed to seven additional manuscripts. She is funded by an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship and a Graduate Merit Fellowship. Miller mentors undergraduates and master’s students in the Aggie Collaborate program. She was a Texas A&M Three Minute Thesis finalist in 2023, has taught senior-level engineering courses, and designed new instructional materials for biomedical labs. Additionally, Miller was president and secretary of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student Association (2022-2025) and remains active in the organization. She also serves as a paramedic with Texas A&M Emergency Medical Service.

Brittany Shapiro

College of Medicine – Department of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology

Under the advisement of Dr. Jon Skare, Brittany Shapiro explores how the Lyme disease bacterium adapts to both tick and mammalian environments, with an emphasis on human infection. Her dissertation uncovered a novel post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism that enables the bacterium to survive in mammalian hosts. Brittany’s innovative work has earned her invitations to present at national and international conferences, including as an invited speaker at the 2024 Biology of Spirochetes Gordon Research Conference and the 2025 American Society for Microbiology (ASM) annual meeting. She has received top awards for five presentations and will soon publish her findings in a high-impact journal. Beyond research, Brittany was the first graduate student selected as a TA for graduate-level courses, has mentored eight students, and created a lesson plan on tick-borne diseases for rural Texas high schools. Her leadership includes serving as Graduate Student Organization president and contributing to multiple committees. She has earned numerous honors, including the ASM's Goldschmidt and Finkelstein awards, and plans to pursue a career in academia.

Lauren Wesolowski

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences – Department of Animal Science

Lauren Wesolowski is a doctoral candidate studying equine circadian biology and immunology in the Department of Animal Science under the supervision of Dr. Sarah White-Springer. She earned a bachelor’s degree in equine pre-veterinary science from Otterbein University and a master’s degree in animal science from Texas A&M. Her research focuses on how environmental factors, such as light, influence physiological responses in horses. Lauren has published seven manuscripts, with three additional first-author submissions in preparation, and has authored or coauthored 28 refereed abstracts. She has presented her work at national and international conferences, including the British Society of Animal Science in Ireland, and earned first place in the Production and Management section of the graduate student competition at the 2025 Equine Science Society Symposium. In 2023, she secured internal grant funding and partnered with Equilume to lead a study on barn lighting effects, resulting in multiple presentations and publications. Beyond research, Lauren has taught five animal science courses, mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students, and served in leadership roles, including graduate student representative on the Equine Science Society board and treasurer for the Animal Science Graduate Student Association.