Christian Rivera selected for superior academic achievement.

Christian Rivera is one of approximately sixty graduate students nation-wide to receive a Ford Foundation Fellowship. Applicants were evaluated by panels of distinguished scholars selected by the National Academies and are selected for their superior academic achievement and who will serve as a role model in teaching and research.

"With the Ford Fellowship I hope not to only fund my research, but to pursue endeavors in teaching and education," Rivera stated. "Having completed a year as a teaching assistant I have found to really enjoy teaching. Knowing the Ford Foundation's strong commitment to education, I plan to seek other teaching opportunities in the future."

Originally from Somerville, NJ, Rivera graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. As a second year graduate student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, he is researching sickle cell disease in associate professor Manu Platt's laboratory, with a primary focus on how strokes are occurring in young children with the disease. His unique approach uses computational fluid dynamics in order to create simulations of the blood flow in the cerebral vasculature.

Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.