Two More Goldwater Scholars at VCU
The National Scholarship Office is pleased to announce that VCU has TWO more Goldwater Scholars. Anjali Hari and Grant Day are the eighth and ninth Goldwater Scholars from VCU in the past five years. Both Anjali and Grant are members of The Honors College. Anjali is a junior majoring in Biology and Spanish. Grant is a sophomore majoring in Biology.
The Goldwater Scholarship Program, honoring the late Senator Barry M. Goldwater, is funded by a federal endowment. The program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. In this year’s competition, 275 Goldwater Scholars were selected from a field of 1,095 applicants who were nominated by their college or university. Goldwater Scholars are selected based on academic merit and the potential to pursue a research career in one of the STEM disciplines. The award covers the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to $7,500 per year.
Anjali, Grant and the other two Goldwater nominees from VCU (Garrett Howe, junior in Mechanical Engineering and Physics, and Ross Campbell, sophomore in Biology and Chemistry) were selected in November by the Goldwater Nominating Committee chaired by Dr. Frank Macrina, VP for Research. Faculty representatives from each of the STEM disciplines serve on this committee. Each nominee works closely with the National Scholarship Office (based in The Honors College) to fine tune his or her application before submitting it to the national competition in late January. Nominees also get significant feedback and support from the members of the Goldwater Committee and their research mentors and recommenders.
Each nominee has benefitted significantly from the undergraduate research opportunities that are being made available at VCU. The various efforts led by Dr. Jacqueline Smith-Mason, Assistant Dean of The Honors College; Dr. Allison Johnson, HHMI Program Coordinator in the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity; and Herb Hill, Coordinator of Undergraduate Research Opportunities are instrumental in helping our best students prepare for the rigors of graduate school and insure that they can be competitive for the best graduate programs. These undergraduate research programs also help our students lay the foundation for competitive applications for national and international scholarships and fellowships.
Since her first year at VCU, Anjali has done extensive research in the lab of Dr. Babette Fuss in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Her research there has focused on understanding proteins involved in myelination that might eventually lead to new treatments for multiple sclerosis. Anjali also has an interest in international medical care and has founded an organization that collected donations of used medical equipment to equip labs in rural areas in Guatemala. Anjali intends to pursue dual MD/PhD degrees and eventually conduct neurobiology research and teach at an academic medical center.
Most recently, Grant has been doing research with Dr. Ronald Smeltz in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Grant’s research there has focused on the proteins involved in Chagas disease. Grant has also assumed leadership of a summer research program for high school students at VCU, which was founded by Chris Pang, 2010 Goldwater Scholar from VCU. Upon completion of his undergraduate studies, Grant intends to pursue a PhD in Microbiology or Immunology and conduct research in vaccinology and pathophysiology of neglected diseases.
We can be confident that Anjali and Grant will build on the wonderful foundations they have been establishing at VCU. Other recent Goldwater Scholars from VCU are currently pursuing graduate or professional degrees at schools like UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Oxford.
Dr. Smeltz and Dr. Fuss will be recognized for their roles as undergraduate research mentors for Anjali and Grant at the Poster Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creativity on Wednesday, April 20, 2011. The willingness of VCU faculty members to mentor our undergraduate research students is absolutely essential in preparing the next generation of academic researchers. We applaud all VCU faculty members who take on this undergraduate mentoring role.
While we are not necessarily competing with other institutions in Virginia, you might find it interesting to note that, as far as I can tell, no other college or university in the Commonwealth of Virginia had more than one Goldwater Scholar this year. One student each from UVa, Virginia Tech, William & Mary and Radford was selected as a 2011 Goldwater Scholar. UVa and W&M each also had a second student recognized as an Honorable Mention.
Please join the National Scholarship Office in congratulating these students on their accomplishments. All four Goldwater nominees were outstanding representatives of VCU in the 2011 Goldwater Scholarship competition.