Microsoft Research has selected BIDS Data Science Fellow Váleri Vásquez as one of ten PhD fellows recognized for their innovative research and capacity for future leadership. Fellows are chosen following a highly competitive process open to candidates throughout North America, and they are awarded two years of tuition and fees in addition to being invited to present their dissertation research at a two day workshop hosted by Microsoft Research.
Vásquez is a PhD candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studies the environmental drivers and economic impacts of infectious disease. Her research is focused on the use of genetic-based interventions, including CRISPR-Cas9 systems, to control mosquito-borne illness. Vásquez develops models to probe the dynamics of genetically modified organisms under realistic field conditions, and to optimize both the effectiveness and cost of their application as public health tools.
The fellowship will enable Vásquez to pursue interdisciplinary research to help control the spread of deadly diseases — like Zika, dengue, and malaria — and to reduce the time and the cost of saving lives. "What's really fantastic is that, in recognizing my work, Microsoft Research is also highlighting the global problems that motivate it, like the human health impacts of climate change." Watch Vásquez' acceptance speech here.
Other 2021 PhD Fellowship recipients include Joshua Brakensiek (Stanford University), Adebayo Eisape (Johns Hopkins University), Jordan Henkel (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Jiaxin Huang (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Sekwon Lee (The University of Texas at Austin), Lianhui Qin (University of Washington), Morgan Klaus Scheuerman (University of Colorado Boulder), Randi Williams (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Bin Yang (University of Toronto).
Read more:
2021 Microsoft Research PhD Fellows
January 29, 2021 | Microsoft Research Newsletter
ERG PhD Student Valeri Vasquez receives 2021 Microsoft Research PhD Fellowship
January 29, 2021 | ERG News
