Lynleigh “L” Thompson ’25 did not want to be a chemist when she grew up. All of this changed when, in the first year on a pre-drug track, she took her first organic chemistry lesson. This can, when she graduated from a baccalaureate in Sciences, she obtained a leading honor in the field of chemistry: one of the most competitive graduate scholarships of the National Science Foundation.
The NSF (GRFP) graduate research scholarship program recognizes and supports graduate students pursuing a full -time and research -based control and doctoral diplomas by emphasizing science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Scholarship holders receive three years of support over five years. For each year of support, the NSF provides an allowance of $ 37,000 and an allowance of $ 16,000 to the institution to which the scholarship holder assists.
Thompson will continue a doctorate in chemistry at Harvard University from this fall.
“This scholarship is an incredible opportunity,” said Garret-Robb-Guy Jonathan Scheerer’s chemistry teacher. “They are quite difficult to get.”
The higher study scholarship program is one of the oldest NSF programs launched in 1952 to recruit and support people who demonstrate the potential for significant contribution to the STEM. Each year, the program receives nearly 14,000 requests, some beneficiaries are then honored as the Nobel Prize winners and members of national academies.
For Thompson, the reality of the NSF scholarship is always a treatment.
“I was more than shocked,” she said. “There has never been a point in this process where I thought I was going to be competitive for that.”
Thompson initially used the application to improve his writing skills. Students are invited to submit an original research idea in addition to a personal declaration on their interest in frequenting higher education, which they plan to do after obtaining the diploma and why they would be strongly adapted to the scholarship. For his own, Thompson was inspired by his research on the 1.4-oxazinons or complex compounds, as a basis for his request.
The complicated nature of chemistry is what hung Thompson on the ground in the first place – being pushed outside his comfort zone and making new discoveries is what pushed him to continue his studies.
“I really like the process of making things that have never been done before, even if it is only a molecule which is only an intermediate and long synthesis,” she said. “I think that in the past two years, I have learned so much – and I still have a long way to go – but I really enjoyed the process of improving.”
Thompson attributes to various professors and students of William & Mary for having helped her to continue his passion for chemistry. It was his organic chemistry teacher, Jonathan Scheerer, who encouraged Thompson to apply for the scholarship in the first place. After having followed his organic chemistry course, Thompson joked by saying that the class “changed all my life trajectory”.
To Scheerer, see Thompson succeeding was simply rewarding.
“She is an extraordinary student, and I was really excited to support her in everything she was going after,” he said. “Winning this scholarship is a will for her and all her potential in the future.”
The pool of this year’s candidates was even more competitive than the previous one, due to the reduction in the financing of the program. Anyway, Scheerer thought that Thompson had what it took to apply. The two worked together on a research document which was public in 2024 by focusing on complex pyridine products with 1.4-oxazinons as intermediaries.
“This is really what we are trying to work in organic synthesis. How do you do certain structures? Why would you like to do certain structures? ” Scheerer said.
Thompson also attributes a large part of his research to the former laboratory comrades and to be able to see them apply for higher education and scholarships, frankly understanding how the process works and what to expect when it has completed its own applications.
“I am definitely where I am now because of the support I had of William & Mary,” she said.
William Oster,, Communications specialist