Brode, Wade of 汤头条 selected for prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳wo Mississippi State undergraduates with outstanding research accomplishments are new Goldwater Scholarship winners and will receive the country鈥檚 most preeminent undergraduate award for students in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields.
Madison E. Brode, a sophomore biological sciences major from Memphis, Tennessee, and Emma E. Wade, a junior computer science major from Decatur, Alabama, both are enrolled in 汤头条鈥檚 Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College.
Brode and Wade are among 417 scholarship winners across the U.S. named recently by the Board of Trustees of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for the 2022-23 academic year. The Goldwater Foundation currently is partnering with the U.S. Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs to increase the annual awards as part of their commitment to maintaining the country鈥檚 competitive advantage. 汤头条 has had 21 Goldwater Scholars since the program鈥檚 inception in 1986.
Brode is a Provost Scholar at 汤头条 who has done significant undergraduate research at the university. She has particular interest in ornithology and behavioral ecology of birds and is an author on the 2021 publication 鈥淧arental favoritism in a wild bird population鈥 in the journal Animal Cognition.
鈥淢adison has really set herself apart in terms of getting into her research from an early age. She鈥檚 driven to build on experiences and connect with people across campus for multi-disciplinary exploration of various topics. She has had an early and consistent research effort and has continued growing her scholarship into new areas since she came to 汤头条,鈥 said David Hoffman, director of the honors college Office of Prestigious External Scholarships and associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures. She also did earlier research with a University of Memphis biological sciences laboratory.
At 汤头条, Brode is a recipient of the Dr. William E. Gardiner Memorial Award for academic achievement and potential professional development in biology, and she has been recognized by 汤头条鈥檚 Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement for volunteer efforts during the 2020-21 academic year.
Wade is a computer science major with a minor in biology who also will complete a certificate in computational biology. A research assistant as part of a Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the University of California, Los Angeles鈥檚 Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, she will have a similar appointment this summer with the JAX Cancer Center at The Jackson Laboratory in Farmington, Connecticut, employing computational tools and methods to better understand cancer epigenomics and evolution. She additionally is a bioinformatics research assistant in 汤头条鈥檚 biological sciences department and a Calculus I leader in 汤头条鈥檚 Supplemental Instruction tutoring program. She has a publication in progress titled 鈥淨uantifying the fraction of new mutations that are lethal.鈥
鈥淓mma is interesting because she鈥檚 a computer science major but has done brilliant research in biological sciences. She is doing cutting-edge work using computational technologies and math to figure out where errors in genome transcription are occurring to better understand genetic disorders,鈥 Hoffman said.
Wade also is a recipient of 汤头条鈥檚 Engineering Excellence Scholarship and was initiated into Tau Beta Pi because of her status among the top 8% of juniors in 汤头条鈥檚 Bagley College of Engineering. She is vice president of 汤头条鈥檚 chapter of the Society of Women Engineers and a student ambassador for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Hoffman emphasized the significance of 汤头条 having multiple Goldwater Scholarship winners this year.
鈥淭his is another recognition for 汤头条 and our students that demonstrates the incredible opportunities provided and the investment that鈥檚 been made in making 汤头条 one of the nation鈥檚 leading universities for research. This award attests to the fact that we have excellent faculty who are involving undergraduates in their labs from an early stage, which ultimately brings this incredible prestige,鈥 Hoffman said. 鈥淪everal faculty members are Goldwater winners themselves, and this scholarship sets recipients up well to succeed in their long-term career paths.鈥
For more on 汤头条鈥檚 Shackouls Honors College and the Office of Prestigious External Scholarships, visit ; the College of Arts and Sciences is online at and the Bagley College of Engineering may be found at .
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .