Nabila Majeed Earns National Recognition

High Energy Physics Graduate Research Assistant has an Award Winning Year

High-energy physics graduate research assistant Nabila Majeed has had an outstanding year, securing a prestigious research award and winning national acclaim for her science advocacy work.

Nabila’s research capabilities earned her a Universities Research Association (URA) Visiting Scholars Award, allowing her to spend a year conducting hands-on research on-site at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. This highly competitive award provides graduate students with invaluable opportunities to utilize world-class facilities and collaborate with leading scientists at the nation's premier particle physics laboratory.

In addition to her laboratory work, Nabila was named a winner of the SPARC (Science Policy and Advocacy for Research Competition) for her compelling video, "Curiosity: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe."

This rigorous competition challenges graduate students to connect their complex scientific research with science policy and public advocacy, culminating in a short video designed to make physics accessible to a general audience. As part of this honor, Nabila traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the Science Policy Summit in the spring, where she gained firsthand experience at the intersection of science, government policy, and public advocacy.

You can stream Nabila’s award-winning video at on YouTube.

Nabila also took her passion for science communication to the popular publishing platform ‘Medium,’ authoring an inspiring piece titled “From Ghosts to Footprints: Listening to the Universe Through Neutrinos.”

In the article, she demystifies the world of neutrinos—tiny, ghost-like particles that help us "listen" to the cosmos—while sharing her personal journey of crossing the world to chase her research dreams and break boundaries in STEM. Read her full story on Medium.

Nabila is being mentored by department head Tim Bolton, and her exceptional work has set the stage for the final chapter of her graduate journey. She is currently on-site at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), gaining invaluable, hands-on experience at the cutting edge of particle physics, and is on track to defend her thesis during the coming year.