Endowed Student Fellowships

Each of our research labs at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute runs like a small business. To ensure success, our primary faculty need extraordinary students by their side to carry out experiments, analyze data, and offer new perspectives. Our graduate students are an engine for innovation, and in order to attract the best and brightest doctoral students, we must offer applicants a competitive compensation package.

With your generous commitment today, we can build our Graduate Student Fellowship Endowment to attract the world’s top young researchers to train with us in Roanoke, Blacksburg, and the Greater Washington, D.C., metro area. This fund helps us make competitive offers to outstanding doctoral degree applicants. These students are essential to our research operations, which is why the institute covers their cost of education, health insurance, and an annual living stipend.

A global land-grant university, Virginia Tech is a destination for this generation’s brightest minds in biology, engineering, and health sciences. The students who apply for our translational biology, medicine, and health (TBMH) graduate program come to Virginia Tech because they want to solve complex health sciences problems, train alongside our world-renowned faculty, and have a powerful global impact.

Trained by leading world experts in brain, heart, and cancer biology, roughly one in ten of our TBMH doctoral students will land a highly competitive National Institutes of Health (NIH) award before graduation. Our students enter the workforce with the knowledge, confidence, and skill-set needed to pursue top-notch postdoctoral and faculty roles in industry or academia, including positions at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University, and the NIH. Their career accomplishments and impactful contributions to their fields highlight the quality of their alma mater and position Virginia Tech as a leader in health sciences research.

Take a TBMH doctoral candidate like Gabriela Carrillo, for example, who is pioneering a new way to examine brain circuits by applying microbiological techniques. Now mentored by Professor Michael Fox, Carrillo studied architecture as an undergraduate before pursuing a career in science. Outstanding, cross-disciplinary, motivated students like her are highly sought after by laboratories at peer institutions.

We need more bright and compassionate graduate students to work alongside our faculty and staff and confront the world’s most pressing health challenges.

With a named gift, you can endow a powerful, permanent legacy of learning and discovery, fueling the accomplishments of future student fellows for generations to come.

Invest in the next generation of global leaders. Transform Virginia Tech’s legacy in biomedical research and health sciences.

In the spirit of Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), help us create a healthier future for all.