Four WVU students have been named National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows. They are Daniel Campa, from left, Colin Krisulevicz, Rebecca Ozbolt and Samuel Stalnaker. (WVU Graphic)
Four West Virginia University students have joined the ranks of the nation’s top emerging researchers after earning prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.
This year’s winners are Daniel Campa, of Morgantown; Colin Krisulevicz, of Salisbury, Maryland; Rebecca Ozbolt, of Akron, Ohio; and Samuel Stalnaker, of Atwater, California and Cowen.
All four students are or will be pursuing research-based master’s or doctoral degrees.
Fellows are provided professional development opportunities, in addition to a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 and a $16,000 education allowance for tuition. According to the NSF, the purpose of the fellowship program is to help ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States.
Daniel Campa — Helping family farmers build climate resiliency
For Daniel Campa, data science isn’t about algorithms. It’s about helping people make smart, sustainable decisions.
“I want to help small family farmers with data-driven insights so they can be more climate resistant to phenomena like droughts or floods and distribute resources like water and fertilizer more efficiently,” he said.
A Morgantown native, Campa credited his connection to West Virginia’s landscape and agricultural heritage with pushing him to use data science to address real-world challenges.
“My analytical mind led me to become interested in math, statistics, and computer science. Data science is the combination of these,” Campa said. “And I have an appreciation for environmental conservation efforts and believe that fixing our food system is a great start.”
Working with his faculty mentor, Srinjoy Das, assistant professor in the School of Mathematical and Data Sciences at the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Campa studies “offline reinforcement learning,” a type of machine learning that trains systems to make decisions based on past data, rather than requiring new interactions.
He works to improve training datasets, strategically resampling rare but important scenarios to better represent real-life conditions.
After his May 2026 graduation from WVU, Campa will use the NSF fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in engineering in data science at the University of Pennsylvania.
There, he plans to apply data-driven approaches to agricultural challenges such as crop yield prediction and resource management.
Colin Krisulevicz — Supporting local agriculture with specialty crops
As a WVU undergraduate, Colin Krisulevicz got hooked on farming in Sven Verlinden’s plant science class at the WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“I discovered how much science goes into farming,” he said.
A 2025 Davis College Outstanding Student and now a first-year graduate student in horticulture at WVU, Krisulevicz will use the Graduate Research Fellowship to explore whether plants that produce indigo dye can thrive in West Virginia as a high-value cash crop for small farmers.
His other research interests range from “floral senescence” — how flowers age and die — to the dung beetle, which he studied under former WVU assistant professor Elizabeth Rowen.
“I love dung beetles. They’re such fascinating critters,” Krisulevicz said. “Before I became an intern for the WVU insect agroecology lab, I had no clue about the entire ecosystem that thrives off cow pats. Now I know how important dung beetles are in keeping pastures clean. They’re gentle, cute insects.”
Rowen’s influence extended beyond the beetles. “She told me about the Graduate Research Fellowship program and encouraged me to apply,” Krisulevicz said. “I wouldn’t be here without her.”
The focus on practical, farmer-centered research frequently takes Krisulevicz outside the lab as he collaborates with farmers across the state.
“I can’t seem to keep myself away from farms, as there is so much applied scientific research going on there every single day,” he said. “I want my work to help farmers and growers. If we boost them up and help them produce their products efficiently, sustainably and scientifically, everyone who eats, wears clothes and uses any sort of agricultural product will eventually benefit.”
Rebecca Ozbolt — Controlling carbon levels with soil microbes
Nontraditional student Rebecca Ozbolt discovered environmental science when she decided to ditch her unfulfilling career as a hairstylist and start over.
She enrolled at WVU as an undergraduate and was drawn to environmental microbiology because, she said, “I loved learning about the hidden life surrounding us and how it operates. And I wanted to do something to aid the health of the planet.”
Ozbolt’s research at the Eberly College and the Davis College focused on the role that microscopic organisms in soil play in the storage of carbon in forest soil and the release of carbon back into the atmosphere.
“Soil microbial communities differ in their metabolic capabilities, and those differences shape how carbon is stabilized in the soil,” she said. “Carbon sequestration research is increasingly urgent as atmospheric carbon dioxide continues to climb, destabilizing global weather patterns and driving more frequent extreme events.”
She credits her success to her research experiences in the lab of Ember Morrissey, associate professor, and to the mentorship of her academic advisor, Jenna Edwards, who provided vital encouragement as Ozbolt began her degree “as a doubtful and tentative 43-year-old who really wanted to become an environmental scientist,” she said.
After her graduation in May 2026, Ozbolt will transition into the Eberly College master’s program in biology to continue her work in the Morrissey Lab, learning to leverage microbial communities in grassland ecosystems for carbon sequestration and ecosystem restoration.
Samuel Stalnaker — Advancing space propulsion with lasers
Samuel Stalnaker launched into laser physics in his first semester at WVU, when a tour of Oleg Jefimenko Distinguished Professor Earl Scime’s lab introduced him to plasma physics and advanced laser diagnostic systems.
“I was so impressed with the labs that I immediately asked to start working in one,” he said.
Stalnaker quickly immersed himself in research focused on developing laser systems that measure the properties of gases and plasmas, including density, temperature and velocity, without disrupting them.
His future work focuses on Hall thrusters, a key technology in modern propulsion systems that powers everything from the SpaceX Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit to NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, which traveled beyond Mars to the asteroid belt in a deep-space mission.
“Improvements in the designs of these thrusters will allow for more efficient spacecraft and improve space travel across a wide range of missions,” he explained.
A December 2025 graduate of the Eberly College, Stalnaker will transition his work on laser diagnostics to a physics doctoral program at the University of Maryland, where he will use “quantum beat spectroscopy,” a laser-based technique, to measure magnetic fields inside plasma-based Hall thrusters, aiming to improve how they are tested and modeled.
“The mentorship from Dr. Scime and Thomas Steinberger was invaluable in getting me to where I am today,” he said. “The grad students in the group created a welcoming environment for learning that allowed me to grow even further.”
In addition to the Graduate Research Fellowship awards for Stalnaker, Krisulevicz, Ozbolt and Campa, WVU students Corinne Hazel, Jillian Vance and Jasmine Harper received honorable mentions from the NSF.
WVU alumni Maggie Robertson and Daisy Levin, now in graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, respectively, also received 2026 Graduate Research Fellowships.
Ellie White, a Marshall University undergraduate, will use her Graduate Research Fellowship to study at WVU.
During the application process for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, the recipients received support from the WVU ASPIRE Office, which assists students applying for nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships.
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