Five Syracuse University students have been selected for the 2024 Goldwater Scholarship, the preeminent undergraduate scholarship awarded in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the U.S. This is the first time Syracuse has had five students selected for the cohort and the third consecutive year the University has had at least three scholars selected in one year.
The recipients are:
“The fact that five students from Syracuse were selected as Goldwater Scholars this year is a testament to our University’s robust support for undergraduate research and the high quality of faculty mentoring here.” Jolynn Parker, director, Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising
All five are research grant recipients from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (The SOURCE).
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, the five-term senator from Arizona. The purpose of the program is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers by awarding scholarships to students who intend to pursue research careers in these fields.
The Goldwater Foundation received 1,353 nominations this year from around the country and 438 students were selected for the scholarship.
Each Syracuse University Goldwater Scholarship nominee worked with the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) to prepare their application. A faculty committee, headed by James Spencer, professor of chemistry in A&S, selected Syracuse’s nominees for the national competition.
“We’re so proud of Julia, Sadie, Kerrin, Serena and Gianna. They are exceptional young scientists and it is gratifying to see them honored with this award,” says Jolynn Parker, CFSA director. “The fact that five students from Syracuse were selected as Goldwater Scholars this year is a testament to our University’s robust support for undergraduate research and the high quality of faculty mentoring here.”
Julia Fancher
Fancher, a physics major, is also minoring in computer science and draws on those skills to create effective theoretical models of astrophysical phenomena.
“I have always loved space, and I now get to use physics and math to learn more about distant galaxies and black holes,” she says.
As a first-year student, Fancher joined the high-energy astrophysics lab of Eric Coughlin, assistant professor of physics. With Coughlin’s guidance, Fancher researches tidal disruption events, which occur when a star is destroyed by the tidal field of a black hole.
Fancher has published two papers in national journals on this topic and presented her research at the local Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics and the national American Astronomical Society conference in January 2024, and was a finalist in the undergraduate AAS Chambliss poster competition. She participated in the “Education and Inclusion in Post-Apartheid South Africa” program through Syracuse Abroad last summer.
Fancher plans to enroll in a doctoral program that focuses on computational and analytical astrophysics, with the goal of becoming a professor at a research university to conduct research in theoretical high-energy astrophysics.
“I aim to build my own astrophysics lab focusing on discovering possible mechanisms of observed astrophysical transients through a combination of analytical methods and computational modeling,” Fancher says.
Sadie Meyer
Meyer grew up surrounded by research with widespread impacts on healthcare and recognized the importance of such work early on. She developed a strong purpose to advance new approaches to women’s health and infertility, specifically with a biomedical engineering perspective.
In her first semester on campus, wanting to get more involved with research, Meyer joined the laboratory of James Henderson, professor of biomedical and chemical engineering and director of the BioInspired Institute. The lab specializes in functional shape-memory materials and biocompatible platform development.
Meyer has learned material synthesis and combined mathematical approaches with experimental design to conduct characterizations of programmed shape memory polymer topography to serve as a dynamic cell culture substrate. Her current project analyzes bacterial response to shape-memory actuated 3D silk wrinkled surfaces as a strategy for biofilm prevention. Meyer is third author on a manuscript published in February 2024 in the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute journal, “Polymers.” She will present her research at the 50th Northeast Bioengineering Conference on April 4 at the Stevens Institute of Technology. This summer, she will participate in a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at Northwestern University’s Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental Resource Facility. There, she will study the ultrastructure of yeast mitochondria, working toward a better understanding of cellular function, health and evolution.
Meyer plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program with strengths in regenerative medicine, biomaterials and mechanobiology. “After earning my Ph.D., I will pursue a faculty position where I can oversee a lab of my own and conduct research to address challenges in fertility and reproductive health,” she says.
“Being selected for the Goldwater Scholarship encourages and supports my ambitions for further inquiry in my fields and makes a tremendous difference to my development as a researcher,” she says.
Kerrin O’Grady
In high school, O’Grady volunteered at a camp for neurodivergent children and adults. “I have seen the need for adaptive and customizable everyday devices for individuals with impaired motor control,” she says.
She is now pursuing degrees in biomedical engineering and neuroscience, with a minor in philosophy. “As a bioengineer, I am eager to support communities that may not have the same opportunities I have been afforded,” she says.
O’Grady has engaged in research in the Henderson Lab since the beginning of her sophomore year. There, she has focused on creating silk-wrinkled topographies on 3D shape-memory polymeric scaffolds and optimizing the attachment and proliferation of mammalian, specifically neuronal, cells on the scaffolds. Her current work focuses on using silk-wrinkled shape-memory polymeric conduits to aid in peripheral nerve injury repair.
O’Grady plans to enroll in a Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering, focusing on neuro-engineering. After completing her Ph.D., she aims to pursue a career focused on neural engineering research, working closely with the neurodivergent and physically disabled communities.
“I want to lead experiments and to create devices and repair in vivo damage, similar to the work that Argonne National Laboratory is conducting on repairing spinal cord damage by injecting a treatment directly into paralyzed mice,” she says. O’Grady will continue this work at the University of Victoria this summer through a Fulbright MITACS research internship. There, she will work in a lab on 3D bioprinting neural tissues from stem cells.
“The Goldwater Scholarship will help me in a financial sense and will provide me with a community of dedicated students who have similar passions and goals as me,” she says.
Serena Peters
Peters is pursuing a major in chemistry because of her interest in applications for environmental sustainability. She has contributed to a research project with Professor Jonathan French quantifying students’ sense of belonging in general chemistry courses. Currently, in Professor Timothy Korter’s lab, she is using high-complexity experimental and computational techniques to study the polymorphism of two antiviral compounds, acyclovir and ganciclovir.
Peters purposefully chooses assignments that allow her to delve deeper into the realm of sustainable chemistry. “Whether presenting on how zeolites can be employed for nuclear waste cleanup or writing a paper on innovative carbon capture strategies, I consistently integrate environmental chemistry into my academic pursuits,” she says.
Peters plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry with a concentration on applications for environmental sustainability. Her career goal is to work in aquatic cleanup as a research professor at a university.
“I aspire to guide undergraduates who, much like myself, may harbor uncertainties about venturing into the field of research. I hope to continue researching in the field of environmental chemistry, specifically using different forms of spectroscopy to analyze water contaminants. My goal is to foster a research environment that demonstrates that research is an inclusive pursuit open to anyone, regardless of their background or identity,” she says.
“The Goldwater Scholarship has helped me build my confidence. I long wondered if research was for me, partially since it’s such a male-dominated field. However, receiving this scholarship has shown me that I am capable and I deserve to be a researcher as much as anyone else,” Peters says.
Gianna Voce
Voce has always loved the problem-solving of computer science and its endless possibilities to intersect with other fields. “Computer science was originally inspired by the human brain and continues to be influenced by neuroscience, so seeing the parallels between my two majors is fascinating to me,” she says. “I love seeing the ways two seemingly disconnected fields interact and discovering new ways for them to do so.”
Voce transferred to Syracuse from Clarkson University; she has sought out research opportunities since the summer before her freshman year, when she participated in a PreFrosh Summer Research Experience through Clarkson’s Honors Program. There, she studied the effects of commonly used fluorescent dyes on tendon mechanics, research that was published in the Journal of the Mechanics of Biomedical Materials.
In the summer of 2022, she participated in an REU at Texas State University focused on cybersecurity in connected vehicles. She helped create a reinforcement learning algorithm that could successfully identify which vehicles had been compromised by a cyberattack for networks that were more than 90% corrupted. She published and presented this research at the Association for Computing Machinery REUNS 2023 conference in Washington, D.C., and at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ International Conference on Consumer Electronics 2024 in Las Vegas. She will be studying abroad in Florence this summer through Syracuse Abroad.
After transferring to Syracuse, Voce joined the lab of Qinru Qiu, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, where she researches algorithms for neuromorphic computing. Her team focuses on developing software and artificial neural networks to run on Intel chips.
Voce plans to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science or neuroscience with a concentration in computational neuroscience. After obtaining her degrees, she plans to take a research position within the tech industry, working as either a computational neuroscientist or a machine learning engineer. “I aim to contribute novel insights toward the development of artificial intelligence systems that mimic the qualities of biological neural networks with the goal of increasing efficiency and accuracy in AI learning,” she says.
“The Goldwater Scholarship is an incredible honor that will not only assist me in my education but provide the opportunity to be a part of an amazing network of researchers that offer inspiration to pursue this career path,” Voce says.
CFSA seeks applicants for the Goldwater Scholarship each fall; the campus deadline is mid-November each year. Interested students should contact CFSA at cfsa@syr.edu.
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