Goldwater award goes to students

Scholarship to allow three University students to conduct research with awards of $7,500

Shea Connelly, Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

Three University undergraduate students will be able to pursue scientific research after being awarded thousands of dollars in recognition of their achievements in math, science and engineering.

Second-year College students Jennifer Cano and Sean Cantrell and third-year Engineering student Gary Shambat have been named recipients of the Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for 2007.

According to Gerald Smith, president of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, the scholarship grants undergraduate students $7,500 a year for up to two years. Applicants must be in the fields of the "hard sciences": mathematics, biology, physics and engineering.

Michael Timko, professor of biology and the University's faculty representative for the Goldwater Scholarship, said the selection process begins with universities choosing four students to nominate.

The University solicits applications from students in all departments of science, engineering, math and computer science.

According to Shambat, one of the award recipients, the application consisted of transcripts, recommendations and essays. The applicants had to write personal essays and a technical essay on a particular subject within their research field, Shambat said.

The applications are received by a group of faculty who then select the four University nominees.

Once the foundation receives applications from all the nominees, academics from across the country evaluate the applicants.

Smith said the competition is becoming "very fierce, indicating the high caliber of students."

According to Smith, the foundation normally receives about 1,100 to 1,200 applications and awards around 300 scholarships.

"Even though the budget is for 300, we can afford a few over that number because of the caliber of nominees that we get," Smith said.

Smith added that schools can only have up to four recipients of the award, so having three recipients "is terrific."

University students suceeding in a national competition reflects positively on the University, Timko said, but is ultimately a credit to the students.

According to Shambat, the Goldwater Award is the engineering or science equivalent of the Truman and Marshall Awards.

"It's a prestigious thing to get for undergraduate research," Shambat said. "The total number of recipients is 300 so having three from just one university is having one percent of the recipients. It's pretty impressive."