The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation has awarded scholarships to Rice University bioengineering students Joseph Rosenthal and Thomas Segall-Shapiro and to David Ouyang, a statistics major. All are entering their senior years this fall.
The award covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board, up to $7,500 per year. The trio is among 278 undergraduate sophomores and juniors selected from across the U.S. for the honor, which is in memory of the late U.S. senator from Arizona.
Rosenthal is a junior in Assistant Professor Junghae Suh’s Laboratory for Nanotherapeutics Research. For two years, his research has focused on reprogramming the intrinsic properties of a small mammalian virus called the adeno-associated virus. Rosenthal won the Best Poster in Engineering Award at the annual Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium and the Brown Undergraduate Research Internship Program Award.
Both Segall-Shapiro and Ouyang are also majoring in biochemistry and cell biology, and both work in Assistant Professor Joff Silberg’s biochemistry lab. The two were members of the Rice International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) group, which was mentored by Silberg. The iGem Jamboree is held annually at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This year’s team project, a genetically engineered biobeer that is programmed to produce resveratrol, captured a gold medal and second place for best presentation. Segall-Shapiro has contributed to three iGEM projects and this was the first for Ouyang.
In its 21 years, the Goldwater Foundation has awarded 5,801 scholarships totaling about $56 million. Goldwater scholars are chosen from a field of 1,097 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide.