"With the Ford Fellowship I hope not to only fund my research, but to pursue endeavors in teaching and education," Rivera stated. "Having completed a year as a teaching assistant I have found to really enjoy teaching. Knowing the Ford Foundation's strong commitment to education, I plan to seek other teaching opportunities in the future."

Originally from Somerville, NJ, Rivera graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University. As a second year graduate student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, he is researching sickle cell disease in associate professor Manu Platt's laboratory, with a primary focus on how strokes are occurring in young children with the disease. His unique approach uses computational fluid dynamics in order to create simulations of the blood flow in the cerebral vasculature.

Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.