When David “Hunter” Sensat first heard that he had been awarded funds from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), he quite literally couldn’t believe it. He had to check the NSF website himself, just to be sure.
“I looked to their website and went through their full awardee list,” Sensat recalls. “I found my name, and I was like, oh my gosh, I’ve actually won it!”
After the NSF significantly reduced the number of funding awardees in 2025, the foundation actually awarded more grad students than ever in 2026, which surprised Sensat just as much as his own award.
“Having [the total number of awards] increase this year and winning it was just completely shocking,” Sensat says.
Upon realizing that he had indeed earned the fellowship, Sensat shared the exciting news with his mother and with his principal investigator Sophia Bailey. It had been Bailey’s research that had first gotten Sensat interested in Oregon State University, and started him on the path to this fellowship.
At first, Sensat wanted to train as a pharmacist. During his undergraduate years, he was researching biocompatible polymers, materials that can be used in drug delivery, medical imaging, and other critical parts of modern medicine.
While looking for a solid graduate school, Sensat came across the newly-founded Bailey lab. He was intrigued by the research the lab was getting ready to do, and he became one of its very first members.
At the Bailey lab, Sensat is developing new covalent adaptable polymer networks. These networks are much more accommodating to stress than the typical polymer. “Traditional plastics that we think of, they aren’t very healing or responsive to different types of stresses,” Sensat explains. “The polymers we’re developing, they can take a lot of force impact and then self-heal, or come back to their original form.” These new polymer networks allow us to explore many areas of interest such as cell tissue modeling, self-healing medical devices, corrosion-resistant coatings, and much more.
When it came time to apply for the fellowship that would fund his polymer research, Sensat had around one month to complete the application. This was because recent changes to who could apply had scrambled his initial plans. Despite the changes, Sensat still wanted to submit an application; the funds could make a massive difference in his research and what he could accomplish.
“The first thing I did was, I went to Sophia and I explained everything,” Sensat says. “I talked to her about the best way to approach this. And she said that just reviewing the solicitation guide provided by NSF and then working through an initial draft proposal was the best approach.” Following this advice, Sensat created his proposal, working closely with Bailey and with other colleagues in the Department of Chemistry.
“Working with other people was the essential part of writing my whole proposal,” he says.
Sensat believes this award will catalyze his research. He will have uninterrupted time to focus on his research and kickstart his project. This is particularly important for such a new lab—Sensat and his colleagues will need that time to establish themselves. “As I complete my classes, this [fellowship] will free up pretty much all my time to devote to research,” Sensat says. “It’ll very much just push me ahead in my research progress.”
Sensat believes that the key to his success was the degree to which he worked with other people. Reviews, support, and advice from others were crucial to his application. This is true, he believes, for any funding application. “The key characteristic I’ve seen through people who have won [funding],” he says, “is that they work with larger groups of people to build the best possible proposal.” You don’t necessarily need experts in your specific field, he explains. It’s more important to have people who know what works and what doesn’t in a funding proposal. “Just having a community around you to help build a proposal I think is important,” he says.
Beyond helping him with his proposal, Sensat’s PI and peers in the Department of Chemistry have given him an environment where he can thrive. After he moved to Corvallis from the southeastern United States, Sensat was able to find a community of people who helped him find his stride.
“[I appreciate] how supportive they’ve been, personally and professionally,” Sensat says, “with grants like this but also—how to live in the Pacific Northwest. I’m just grateful for all their support.”
