{"id":9053,"date":"2021-04-29T15:50:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-29T22:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about-hmc\/?p=9053"},"modified":"2023-04-06T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T16:29:44","slug":"four-harvey-mudd-students-receive-2021-goldwater-scholarships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/2021\/04\/29\/four-harvey-mudd-students-receive-2021-goldwater-scholarships\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Harvey Mudd Students Receive 2021 Goldwater Scholarships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The most prestigious national award for undergraduate STEM researchers, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, has been awarded to four Harvey Mudd College students: Tonatiuh Gonzalez \u201922, Jacob Kelber \u201923, Hanna Porter \u201922 and Anna Soper \u201922.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 409 Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,256 natural science, engineering and mathematics students nominated by 438 academic institutions. All four of the HMC students who were nominated received a scholarship, which covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 HMC Goldwater Scholars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Tonituah<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tonatiuh Gonzalez \u201922<\/strong>, a math and computational biology major, is doing research with Eliot Bush, who studies microbial genome evolution. \u201cOur research is about reconstructing the evolutionary history of bacteria and identifying events that may have given bacteria environmental or antibacterial resistance or increased virulence,\u201d says Gonzalez, who intends to pursue either an M.D. or PhD in computational biology and conduct research in disease genomics. His career interests include cancer research and practicing medicine. In 2020, Gonzalez was named an HMC Outstanding Emerging Leader for demonstrating collaboration, integrity, respect and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jacob<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jacob Kelber \u201923<\/strong>, a chemistry major, worked during summer 2020 with Katherine Van Heuvelen to develop new, environmentally friendly catalysts for important reactions. \u201cThe goal of my research was to computationally screen a catalyst for the detoxification of potentially carcinogenic industrial pollutants perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene,\u201d says Kelber, who also worked with chemistry professors Hal Van Ryswyk (HMC) and Nathan C. Gianneschi (Northwestern). \u201cI was able to successfully find an iron-based catalyst and model its reaction with PCE and TCE.\u201d With a goal of teaching at the university level, Kelber intends to pursue a PhD in chemistry and continue research in chemical science. \u201cI would like to focus this research on finding ways to capture carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and\/or finding a sustainable method to deal with our plastic waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hanna<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hanna Porter \u201922<\/strong>, a chemistry major, is working in both Hal Van Ryswyk\u2019s chemistry lab and Tom Donnelly\u2019s physics research group. \u201cI have been involved in research involving quantum dot size determination via pulsed-field gradient NMR in Professor Van Ryswyk\u2019s lab and developing an RF-plasma reactor for gas-phase graphene synthesis in Professor Donnelly\u2019s lab,\u201d says Porter, who was awarded HMC\u2019s Platt Prize for her academic accomplishments and contributions to the life of the College. This summer, she will investigate electron microscopy during a National Science Foundation research opportunity at Cornell University called PARADIM (Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials), which is dedicated to the discovery and fabrication of materials with unprecedented properties that do not exist in nature. Upon graduation, Porter plans to obtain a PhD in physical chemistry or materials science. She is interested in conducting materials science research to investigate energy storage solutions and novel renewable energy sources to combat climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Anna<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anna Soper \u201922, <\/strong>physics and math major and a member of Lori Bassman\u2019s research team, is studying metal alloys and working on computationally simulating their compositions and structures. \u201cMy current research is in the field of computational materials science, where I am investigating the chemical and structural mechanisms by which the brittle sigma phase in a novel stainless steel substitute is destabilized by the addition of aluminum, producing a useful, ductile alloy,\u201d Soper says. In collaboration with Bassman, physics professor Nicholas Breznay and Jonas Kaufman \u201917, she has developed a model of the complex sigma phase that predicts the lattice sites that different atomic species preferentially occupy, allowing researchers to study local changes in bond lengths and charge distributions that may contribute to the destabilization of the sigma phase. This summer, Soper will do research in nonlinear photonics and optical computing at Caltech before applying to graduate school, where she\u2019ll pursue a PhD in experimental atomic, molecular and optical physics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Goldwater Scholarships are the result of a partnership with the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs and the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. All Harvey Mudd sophomores and juniors are eligible to compete for the Goldwater Scholarship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most prestigious national award for undergraduate STEM researchers, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, has been awarded to four Harvey Mudd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6,22,24,26,30],"class_list":["post-9053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-award","category-biology","category-chemistry","category-mathematics","category-physics","category-research","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11512,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions\/11512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}