Three CBEE students win Goldwater scholarships

[original message from Simon Stacey]

The Goldwater Foundation has just announced the results of the 2016 competition, and three of UMBC's four nominees have won 2016 scholarships. They are:

Daniel Ocasio, Junior, Chemical Engineering  (PI, Lee Blaney, Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering)
Naomi Mburu, Sophomore, Chemical Engineering (PI, Leon Bellan, Vanderbilt University)
Andreas Seas, Junior, Chemical Engineering (PIs, Alexey Kamenskiy, Jason MacTaggart, University of Nebraska Medical Center)

All three students are members of the Meyerhoff Program and Honors College. As far as I know, this is UMBC's best showing in the competition so far.

Mitsue Wiggs, in the Meyerhoff Program, coordinated an innovative new initiative this year which saw the program's applicants submit early versions of their applications to Meyerhoff alumni in relevant fields for review and advice, before their applications reached the UMBC Goldwater Scholarship Selection Committee. This resulted, it seems, in material of higher quality coming to the Committee. 

David Eisenmann (Biological Sciences) and Lee Blaney (Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering) did sterling work on the committee this year. They reviewed a larger than ever and highly diverse pool of applications this year, winnowed the group, and then provided advice and feedback on nominee essays over several months, including what would otherwise have been their winter break. 

The excellence of our students, and the fantastic support they get from people like Simon, Mitsue, David and Lee, make for great outcomes like this one!

Posted: March 31, 2016, 1:46 PM

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