Winners' Circle

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship
(2006)

Kate Brizzi & Zachary Lebo

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a competitive national award created by Congress in 1986 to honor Sen. Barry M. Goldwater and to promote the study of the sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

Brizzi, a junior majoring in bioengineering (chemical engineering option) with a minor in Italian, found a love for science and engineering in her high school biology and calculus classes, and she has been excelling in the fields ever since. The Penn State Women in Science and Engineering Research connected Brizzi early on with Neil Sharkey, professor of kinesiology, whom she has worked with ever since. Brizzi has previously been awarded the Sylvia Stein Memorial Space Grant Scholarship.

Lebo, a junior double-majoring in meteorology and mathematics, is currently studying abroad at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and says that he is having the best experience of his life. Aside from the Goldwater, Lebo also has been awarded a scholarship from the American Meteorological Society and the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. Lebo has been conducting research since last summer with Jerry Harrington, assistant professor of meteorology.

NIST SURF

Chad Althouse, Kevin Cheng, Carolyn Denomme and Thomas Walker

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship gives students the chance to spend 12 weeks of the summer conducting research in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The fellowship selects approximately 100 students each year from the entire nation and gives them an opportunity to conduct some of the best research with which an undergraduate can be involved.

Chad Althouse, a sophomore majoring in material science and engineering, has already had several research experiences: conducting research for the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). After he finishes his undergraduate degree, Althouse wants to pursue his Ph.D. and wants to someday lead a research team of his own.

Kevin Cheng, a junior majoring in electrical engineering with a minor in mathematics, said that he was immediately attracted to the program because he views it as a way to gain extremely valuable research experience. Cheng wants to pursue a master's degree at Penn State once he graduates, and he would like to someday work as a researcher for either NIST or IBM.

Carolyn Denomme, a junior Schreyer Honors College scholar majoring in engineering science with a minor in mechanical engineering, spent the past four summers working on various research projects and couldn’t be more excited to spend this summer working on a new one. Denomme plans to pursue a Ph.D. and wants to someday get a professorial position so that she can have interaction with students, as well as have the ability to keep learning and the opportunity to continue research.

Thomas Walker, also a junior Schreyer Honors College scholar majoring in engineering science, wanted to go after the NIST SURF program because of its prestige, its ties to the federal government and his love for developing technology. Walker wants to go after a master's degree once he graduates and would like to pursue it at Penn State because of his attachment to the great faculty in the Engineering Science Department.

The National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship Program

Samantha Edd and Thomas Essinger-Hileman

The Department of Defense awards graduate fellowships as a means of increasing the number of U.S. citizens and nationals trained in science and engineering disciplines of military importance. This year, Samantha Edd and Thomas Essinger-Hileman garnered the award.

Edd, an undergraduate senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering, has researched the computational aspects of left ventricular assist devices in the Penn State Artificial Heart Lab. Prior to garnering the NDSEG fellowship, Edd received multiple scholarships through Penn State, the most recognizable being the Academic Excellence Scholarship through the Schreyer Honors College and the Paul Morrow Endowed Scholarship through the College of Engineering. She will be attending Stanford University for her graduate degree.

Essinger-Hileman, a Penn State graduate with a B.S. in Physics, Mathematics, and Philosophy has “spent a summer at the California Institute of Technology working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and another summer in Hamburg, Germany, at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Germany’s premier particle accelerator.” He has been recognized with the Paul Axt Prize from the Schreyer Honors College and a Society of Distinguished Alumni Scholarship. He will be attending Princeton University for his graduate degree.

Penn State student garners national honor from Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
(2006)

Brian Schratz

This scholarship was made possible by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which accepts nominations from faculty members yearly an award only seventeen qualified students that will keep America at the forefront of technology.

Brian Schratz was an obvious candidate for this award considering his 3.71 GPA and honors graduation status. Schratz wrote an undergraduate thesis entitled “Design of a Sounding Rocket Plasma Frequency Probe” as well as a publication for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics entitled “Commonality of Rover Operations for Moon and Mars Missions”. Schratz worked as an undergraduate research fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA Langley Research Summer Scholar, and participated in the Airborne Telemetry Engineering Cooperative Education Program.

The Center for the Study of the Presidency
(2006-2007)

Elena Cross

The Center for the Study of the Presidency seeks to further the understanding and functioning of the American Presidency and its related institutions and, thereby, to educate, illuminate, and inspire leaders of tomorrow. It is essentially a n on-partisan and non-profit organization. Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower's 1969 call for programs on the American Presidency for "students old and young," its founders included Dr. R. Gordon Hoxie, a historian and Chancellor of Long Island University, who became the first President of the Center, and Arthur T. Roth, Board Vice Chair at Long Island University, who became the first Chairman of the Center's Board of Trustees. For most of its existence, the Center has focused on educating young leaders in order to learn about the policy process and the history of American government.

Elena Cross, a junior double-majoring in political science and international studies with minors in French and History, was chosen by the Center for the Study of the Presidency to receive a fellowship for leadership and public service. Cross, also a Schreyer Scholar who has maintained a cumulative 3.95 GPA in coursework across several subjects, studied abroad in summer 2005 at the University Maastrict in the Netherlands, focusing on politics of Europe. She was also selected to conduct honors research with Nancy Love on the political philosophy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Cross has maintained an interest in American political and social history since her youth, but especially after September 11 th, when she became increasingly interested in global politics, particularly those relating to underdeveloped countries.

Gates Cambridge
2007

After a lengthy application and interview process, Denny, an architecture major, and chemistry major Rebekah McLaughlin have both been named Gates Cambridge Scholars. They are two of only 48 scholars from the United States to be selected this year.

McLaughlin, originally from Irwin, Pa., was “flattered and surprised” when she received word of her award. Her academic record within Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College and previous research experience at Penn State and in Boston have given her a unique, strong background to prepare her for a career in science and develop practical ways to benefit others through that work.

She hopes that her research will help to develop and further the practical application of magnetic resonance imaging techniques in a medical diagnostic setting. She has been communicating electronically with her future Cambridge faculty instructors, and she looks forward to a strong collaborative student/teacher relationship with them.

Denny is an architecture major originally from Springfield, Pa. She is interested in sustainable design innovation in the urban environment and plans to pursue her master of philosophy degree in environmental studies. She looks forward to working with peers from a variety of disciplines and research approaches. She has been in steady communication with the head of her graduate program since April 2006, during which time her “anticipation and determination grew” as her application went from “vague daydream” to “lovely reality.” Along the way, she found that everyone who she interacted with in the program was “more than willing to help me in any way that would enable me to succeed.”

Goldwater
2007

Recently, Tineke Cunning and her staff at Penn State's Undergraduate Fellowships Office assisted four outstanding Schreyer Honors College students with their successful applications to the Barry M. Goldwater Program. Leah Liu, John McManigle and Vince Viscomi each recently won a Goldwater Scholarship, heralded as one of the most prestigious science awards for undergraduates. In addition, George Khoury received an honorable mention.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is a distinguished undergraduate scholarship initiative established by Congress in 1986. Designed for students with a proven track record in scientific research, the Goldwater Scholarship provides financial assistance for the final year or years of undergraduate study for students who plan to pursue advanced degrees in mathematics, the sciences or engineering.

A sophomore pursuing a biochemistry and molecular biology major, Liu one day hopes to lead a research group at a university or government research institution. Her immediate plans are to research animal development at the biochemical and molecular levels and to teach at a university or government research institution. She said she is “very fortunate that the Goldwater Scholarship still supports aspiring scientists, even when research funding is being cut on many levels.”

McManigle is a physics major with minors in biology and mathematics. His Goldwater application focused on research he has done for two summers at the National Institutes of Health, and at Penn State with Distinguished Professor Paul Weiss on the Neurochip project. McManigle hopes to pursue an M.D./Ph.D. program and gain further training in molecular medicine. An emergency medical technician (EMT) on campus, he said, “Advances in imaging and molecular techniques will soon allow for more detailed diagnosis and specific treatment of a wide variety of disorders, and I hope to be able to contribute to these advances.”

Viscomi is pursuing triple majors in astronomy & astrophysics, physics and mathematics. He plans to complete a doctorate in physics and conduct research in particle physics and cosmology at a major research institution; “receiving the Goldwater is a great step in this direction,” he said. He works for the PSU-affliliated IceCube Neutrino Observatory as an undergraduate assistant, where he has helped to develop computer software that assists in the detection of neutrinos.

Khoury is a junior majoring in chemical engineering and pursuing a minor in chemistry. A recipient of several scholarship awards within his field and a leader in student government, he aims to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering following graduation from Penn State. He plans to use his advanced degree to teach at the university level and research novel fuels, alternative fuels and combustion engines.