DURHAM, N.C.— Robert Hill, a doctoral student in Earth and Climate Sciences at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

The fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000.

It will support Hill’s doctoral research, which focuses on using the geochemistry of uranium stable isotopes as a new and novel method to reconstruct the origin and geological deposition of phosphate rocks, as well as for investigating the isotopic ratios of phosphate fertilizers and their environmental impacts.

Prior to beginning his doctoral studies at Duke in 2021, Hill worked as an environmental geologist at SCST, LLC, in Chicago, Ill.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in 2019 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he double-majored in geology and earth, society, and environmental sustainability.

Hill’s faculty advisor at the Nicholas School is Avner Vengosh, Nicholas Distinguished Professor of Environmental Quality.

The mission of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program is to help ensure the quality, vitality and diversity of the U.S. scientific and engineering workforce by broadening the participation of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans, in science and engineering fields.

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