William Niu Receives 2024 Hertz Fellowship

Zijian “William” Niu, C’24, has received a 2024 Hertz Fellowship in applied science, engineering, and mathematics from the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. One of the most prestigious doctoral fellowship programs of its kind, the Hertz Fellowship provides five years of funding for graduate study, as well as access to lifelong programming such as mentoring, events, and networking.
 
Niu was born in Kaifeng, China, and grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. He majored in biochemistry, biophysics, and physics at Penn as a Roy and Diana Vagelos Molecular Life Sciences Scholar. He conducted research with the Arjun Raj group at Penn Engineering, where he developed new computational tools for the automated analysis of microscopic images that identify messenger RNA transcripts and gene expression in cells, and earned a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2023 for his work. He served as an organic chemistry workshop leader, vice president of the Penn Undergraduate Chemistry Society, and event supervisor for Science Olympiad at Penn. He co-founded Project Lucid, an initiative to promote adaptive science communication among Penn undergraduates.
 
In 2024, Niu also won a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a merit-based program that provides graduate school funding for immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. He was named a 2024 Dean’s Scholar from Penn Arts & Sciences, received the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Challenge Award and the William E. Stephens Prize, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In addition, he received a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
 
Niu plans to pursue a PhD in computational and systems biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.