Two 汤头条 students receive prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Contact: Mary Pollitz
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擳wo Mississippi State rising seniors are being celebrated for their selection as national Barry Goldwater Scholars.
Brittin Perdue of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Spencer Lile of Benton, Arkansas, are receiving one of the nation鈥檚 premier undergraduate scholarships for STEM students who have significant research experience and a passion for making important research contributions in graduate school and their careers.
汤头条 President Mark E. Keenum commended the scholars upon news of their selection.
鈥淥ur 汤头条 students are reliably competitive for prestigious scholarships like the Goldwater Scholarship,鈥 said Keenum. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a powerful testament to our world-class faculty and the academic work ethic of our wonderful students. On behalf of the university, I congratulate Brittin and Spencer and their families.鈥
Collectively, the scholars are the university鈥檚 26th and 27th students to achieve this honor since the Goldwater Foundation鈥檚 inception 39 years ago. The 汤头条 awardees are among only 441 Goldwater Scholars chosen this year from 1,350 natural science, engineering and mathematics students nominated by 445 institutions.
Perdue, an electrical engineering major, plans to pursue a doctoral degree to continue research on precision timing topics such as atomic clocks, frequency control and low-phase noise electronics. He currently works with Precision Timing Research and has held research positions with the U.S. Naval Observatory, University of Alabama and 汤头条鈥檚 Ariunbold Ultrafast Spectroscopy Lab. His proudest undergraduate accomplishments include membership in the co-ed professional engineering fraternity Theta Tau and his leadership in the university鈥檚 chapter of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Lile, a physics and biomedical engineering major concentrating in pre-med, plans to enroll in an M.D. and Ph.D. program to study the computational modeling of the heart. He hopes to work in a lab designing patient-specific heart disease treatments for rare heart disorders. As an 汤头条 student, he has served as a Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College residential advisor and as the Residential Advisor Association president since December. In addition to his research in the 汤头条 Department of Chemistry鈥檚 Johnson Laboratory, Lile has spent numerous hours shadowing general and plastic surgeons in Arkansas.
Both scholars have amassed numerous awards, accolades, presentations and publications. 聽
David Hoffman, director of 汤头条鈥檚 Office of Prestigious External Scholarships, said these students will represent the university well as they continue their impact on STEM research.
鈥淎s soon as they arrived at 汤头条, Spencer and Brittin got involved with research experiences with our world-class faculty. This early and sustained engagement created further opportunities for them both on and off campus, which then converted into publications and presentations in collaboration with the labs in which they worked,鈥 Hoffman said. 聽鈥淲hat I find most impressive is that they are both involved in critically important, cutting-edge research that will soon be applied to and impact all our lives.鈥
For more information about the Goldwater Scholarship program, visit .
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