Two Miami seniors earn 2025 Astronaut Scholarships
Grace Koo, Emily Wang are both part of university’s Honors College
Published
Miami University's Grace Koo, left, and Emily Wang have been selected as 2025 Astronaut Scholarship recipients.
Two Miami seniors earn 2025 Astronaut Scholarships
Published
Miami University seniors Grace Koo and Emily Wang have earned Astronaut Scholarships for 2025.
Awarded by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the Astronaut Scholarship is among the most significant merit-based, monetary scholarships awarded to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) juniors and seniors who intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree.
Created in 1984 by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts, the foundation’s mission is “to aid the United States in retaining its world leadership in technology and innovation by supporting the very best and brightest scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics while commemorating the legacy of America’s pioneering astronauts.”
Miami is one of the foundation's original university partners, with the first student being awarded a scholarship in 1986. There are currently 51 partner institutions nationally.
Miami is also one of seven partner schools of the foundation's Founders for the Future program. Thanks to a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future, seven additional Astronaut Scholarships — one from each of the seven partner schools — will be provided every year through 2029.
The Astronaut Scholarship is considered one of the premier scholarships available to undergraduate STEM majors intending a career in research. Koo and Wang are both members of Miami’s Honors College.
Koo is a Statistics and Business Analytics double major from Cincinnati whose research is broadly in statistical genomics and population genetics. Koo’s faculty mentor, Donghyung Lee, is an assistant professor of Statistics.
“Grace is one of the most outstanding students I have ever mentored,” Lee said.
“We need more outstanding researchers in this field. National scholarships will motivate a lot of talented students to continue pursuing careers in the STEM field. This will inspire other students as well to follow a similar path.”
Added Koo: “I’m very motivated to help others. I’m someone who loves to use the resources that I have, the people I know, to benefit others. I think that passion drives me to become a professor in the future. I just love working with people, sharing what I know with them and what they know with me, and really have that dynamic of learning from each other.”
Wang is a Biochemistry major with a Premedical and Pre-Health Studies co-major from Lexington, Kentucky, whose research involves characterizing multidrug resistant cancers.
“I've always been interested in cancer research,” Wang said. “I actually started in high school working on pancreatic cancer, and I guess that passion has kind of driven me forward to looking into more cancer research labs to join at Miami.”
In March, Wang was one of three Miami students selected for the Goldwater Scholarship.
Wang works with Rock Mancini, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Mancini said academic awards, like the Astronaut and Goldwater honors, are important to encourage students.
“In research, the positive feedback that you get is few and far between,” Mancini said. “It’s not every day that you go into a lab and there’s a breakthrough discovery or things to celebrate. The more sort of victories that a student has along the way, the more they’re encouraged to continue down a path in the sciences.”
Awarded by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the Astronaut Scholarship is among the most significant merit-based, monetary scholarships awarded to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) juniors and seniors who intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree.
Created in 1984 by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts, the foundation’s mission is “to aid the United States in retaining its world leadership in technology and innovation by supporting the very best and brightest scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics while commemorating the legacy of America’s pioneering astronauts.”
Miami is one of the foundation's original university partners, with the first student being awarded a scholarship in 1986. There are currently 51 partner institutions nationally.
Miami is also one of seven partner schools of the foundation's Founders for the Future program. Thanks to a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future, seven additional Astronaut Scholarships — one from each of the seven partner schools — will be provided every year through 2029.
The Astronaut Scholarship is considered one of the premier scholarships available to undergraduate STEM majors intending a career in research. Koo and Wang are both members of Miami’s Honors College.
Koo is a Statistics and Business Analytics double major from Cincinnati whose research is broadly in statistical genomics and population genetics. Koo’s faculty mentor, Donghyung Lee, is an assistant professor of Statistics.
“Grace is one of the most outstanding students I have ever mentored,” Lee said.
“We need more outstanding researchers in this field. National scholarships will motivate a lot of talented students to continue pursuing careers in the STEM field. This will inspire other students as well to follow a similar path.”
Added Koo: “I’m very motivated to help others. I’m someone who loves to use the resources that I have, the people I know, to benefit others. I think that passion drives me to become a professor in the future. I just love working with people, sharing what I know with them and what they know with me, and really have that dynamic of learning from each other.”
Wang is a Biochemistry major with a Premedical and Pre-Health Studies co-major from Lexington, Kentucky, whose research involves characterizing multidrug resistant cancers.
“I've always been interested in cancer research,” Wang said. “I actually started in high school working on pancreatic cancer, and I guess that passion has kind of driven me forward to looking into more cancer research labs to join at Miami.”
In March, Wang was one of three Miami students selected for the Goldwater Scholarship.
Wang works with Rock Mancini, assistant professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Mancini said academic awards, like the Astronaut and Goldwater honors, are important to encourage students.
“In research, the positive feedback that you get is few and far between,” Mancini said. “It’s not every day that you go into a lab and there’s a breakthrough discovery or things to celebrate. The more sort of victories that a student has along the way, the more they’re encouraged to continue down a path in the sciences.”
Established in 1809, Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, with regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, a learning center in West Chester, and a European study center in Luxembourg.
