Two Stony Brook students have been selected as recipients of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, an award recognizing outstanding undergraduate, PhD-bound students in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering (STEM). This year’s winners are Gabriella Vaccaro, biochemistry, and Zain Zaidi, chemistry.
For the 2023-2024 academic year, 1,353 students were nominated by 446 academic institutions from a pool of more than 5,000 students nationally. A total of only 508 were selected as scholarship recipients. Each Goldwater Scholar is awarded up to $7,500 towards tuition cost, mandatory fees, books, and room and board for their remaining years of undergraduate study.
“These undergraduates do not dream small; Zain hopes his research will impact climate change through renewable energy and Gabriella is dedicated to getting better results faster using bioinformatics,” said Ashley Staples, director for external fellowships. “Supporting the Goldwater applicants is always an inspirational endeavor, and this year was no exception.”
Vaccaro has spent the past year researching under advisors David McKinnon, a professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, and Barbara Rosati, a research assistant professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. She plans to continue studying bioinformatics and data analysis under her mentors, as well as participating in wet and dry lab projects.
“Gabriella will emerge from her undergraduate program with unusually strong machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data analysis skills for someone headed into the medical research field, which will make her unusually competitive and perfectly positioned to be a leader in her field,” said McKinnon.
“She is fearless when it comes to tackling new fields of expertise, which she does with method, dedication, diligence, and a sense of responsibility and ownership that rival the ones of a graduate student on the verge of defending their thesis,” said Rosati about Vaccaro.
In addition to being a recipient of this prestigious award, Vacccaro is contributing to a peer reviewed paper set to publish soon. She has also participated in Stony Brook’s Exploration in STEM 2022 and Stony Brook’s Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (URECA) in 2023. 
Zaidi has been researching under advisors Arshad Mehmood, postdoctoral associate, Institute for Advanced Computational Science, and Benjamin Levine, Institute for Advanced Computational Science. His research is in theoretical chemistry, specifically on studying the dynamics of molecules in photoexcited electronic states. He plans to continue working with the Levine Group on projects centered around the photochemistry of organic molecules.
“Zain thinks deeply about the broad impact of his projects, the technical details of the methods he is using, and everything in between. His creativity, independence, and technical knowledge are off the charts. It’s fun to watch as he grows into a future scientific leader,” said Levine.
Mehmood shared how Zaidi’s hard work has continued to earn recognition: “Zain possesses exceptional scientific communication skills, evident in his remarkable ability to grasp and interpret scientific literature with ease. He adeptly translates his research findings into engaging presentations, which was notably recognized when he received the esteemed Best Poster Presentation Award for an undergraduate from the American Chemical Society Division of Computational Chemistry at the ACS National Meeting in Fall 2023.”
Students interested in applying for the Goldwater scholarship can learn more about the award at External Fellowships and Scholarships.
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