Yale Physics graduate student Eunice Beato, undergraduate Aaron Chizhik, and undergraduate alum Laura Zhou (now at Stanford University), all current and former Wright Lab members, were each awarded the 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP).
Aaron Chizhik ‘25 is a physics and music (piano) major, working with Karsten Heeger, Eugene Higgins Professor and Chair of Physics, director of Yale’s Wright Lab, and Chizhik’s advisor; and Reina Maruyama, professor of physics at Wright Lab, on the CUORE/CUPID collaborations searching for evidence of neutrinoless double beta decay. His research has focused on hardware characterization and development for next-generation detectors. He has been an active member of Yale’s Society of Physics Students (SPS), serving as Prize Lecture Chair and later as Co-President from Spring 2024 through Fall 2024.
Chizhik said he is “honored to be offered the NSF GRFP, and is excited to continue his engagement with the larger physics community at UC Berkeley,” where he will begin his Ph.D. in physics in Fall 2025.
Heeger said, “Congratulations to Aaron for winning the NSF graduate fellowship! This is a wonderful recognition and continuation of the work he started at Wright Lab. Over the past year, he worked on the development of instrumentation to reduce backgrounds in the CUORE and CUPID neutrino experiments. His proposal to develop new quantum sensors will help decipher if neutrinos are their own antiparticles and probe the nature of dark matter.”
Maruyama added, ”Aaron’s proposal on finding neutrinoless double beta decay is inspired and forward-looking. I wish him well as he embarks on the next chapter of his studies at Berkeley.”
Eunice Beato is a second year Ph.D. graduate student working in the Maruyama group at Wright Lab on the various axion dark matter searches. Beato graduated from Wellesley College with a B.A. in physics.
Beato explained, “During the summer of my junior year at Wellesley I was awarded the opportunity to conduct axion dark matter research with Professor Lindley Winslow at MIT. That summer I was introduced to a whole new side of dark matter candidates, axions, that I had not heard of before and thus my passion for axion dark matter searches developed. “
Beato continued, “After graduating from Wellesley and spending the summer working at Fermilab with neutrinos, I was delighted to come to Yale and start working on axion dark matter again in Reina’s Lab. Now I have been integral to developing the DAQ system for the ALPHA experiment and simulating the cavities for the RAY experiment.”
Maruyama said ”Eunice wrote a fabulous application on finding axions! I am so proud of her and her work, and we all look forward to working with her. Congratulations!”
Maruyama also offered her well-wishes for Zhou, who she advised during Zhou’s time at Wright Lab, saying, “Congratulations to Laura! The award is well-deserved and I wish her well as she continues her studies at Stanford.”
We also recognize the following Yale physics graduate students who received honorable mentions from the NSF GRFP—Jackie Baeza-Rubio, Morgan Cole, and Cecily Lowe—all members of Wright Lab—as well as fellow graduate student Halona Dantes.
Baeza-Rubio said, “while they usually award 2,300 students [per year]; this year, due to budget cuts, only 1,000 were awarded, so competition was tougher than ever.”
The purpose of the NSF GRFP is to help ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM education. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $37,000. Click here for a list of awardees.