NEWS
NORMAN, Okla. – Two students from the University of Oklahoma have received prestigious scholarships recognizing their academic achievements and potential in STEM careers. The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) recently named Arianna Dambold and Aaron Lim as members of its 2026 class of Astronaut Scholars, a select group of 79 students from across the U.S.
The ASF’s Astronaut Scholarship is awarded to junior and senior-year college students pursuing degrees in STEM and aims to support the next generation of explorers and innovators. Faculty members at ASF-partnering universities nominate students for the awards, and recipients are offered up to $15,000 in scholarship support.
Dambold is a rising junior pursuing a biomedical engineering degree in OU’s Gallogly College of Engineering and is a member of the Honors College. She said having her accomplishments highlighted through the scholarship is pushing her to continue working hard as an undergraduate student.
“I came to college because I wanted to spend my life exploring and innovating at the bounds of human knowledge and capability,” Dambold said. “For me, biomedical engineering is exactly that: exploring human extremes and our knowledge about ourselves while innovating solutions to push those bounds further for the benefit of the people around you, [and] getting to spend my life saving and improving the lives of others.”
She said she is looking forward to meeting other students, as well as mentors and supporters, through the scholarship programming.
“Life is nothing without the people you connect with and share it with, so I am so excited to be able to have an experience that connects me with people who love science, learning and pushing the bounds of creation as much as I do,” Dambold said.
Lim is a rising senior who is pursuing a chemical biosciences degree in OU’s Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Honors College. He said being selected for the scholarship is meaningful for its recognition of his achievements and long-term plans, and that, as an opportunity, it has helped push him outside his comfort zone.
“My research background is in photodynamic therapy and light-responsive therapeutics, where I saw that decades of scientific innovation can still struggle to reach mainstream medicine,” said Lim, who is a summer research intern at Harvard Medical School’s Program on Regulation, Therapeutics, and Law. “That experience made me want to apply the same innovation mindset more upstream, especially in pharmaceutical and health policy, so that discoveries made in the lab can actually reach patients in an affordable and meaningful way.”
He is also looking forward to networking with other students through the scholarship and using its mentorship resources.
“A major part of my growth so far has come from reaching beyond Oklahoma to build lasting mentorship relationships with people who are in positions I hope to be in one day,” Lim said. “Those relationships have been key to helping me find unique opportunities, and I am excited to keep building that kind of network through ASF.”
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. For more information about the university, visit www.ou.edu.
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The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine has been awarded a five-year, $10.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the Oklahoma Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Sensory Biology. The center will serve as a hub for research into how cells sense and respond to their environment and the diseases that can occur when that process malfunctions.
