Doctoral student Paula Ramirez (Radiochemistry) has been selected for a fellowship under the Department of Energy's University Nuclear Leadership Program (UNLP), becoming the eighth student from UNLV to win the prestigious award. The highly competitive graduate fellowship program will fully fund Ramirez's research over a three-year period beginning in fall 2024. Ramirez completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry at UNLV (2023), graduating with honors, and joined the radiochemistry Ph.D. in fall of the same year. Her current research, "Synthesis of Phosphate Ion Exchangers for Nuclear Waste Management," is supported by the Minority-Serving Institutions Partnership Program (MSIPP) and was recently presented at the Waste Management Symposium (WMS) in Phoenix, Arizona. Professor Ken Czerwinski (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has provided Ramierez with faculty guidance and mentorship.