Three Washington University in St. Louis students have received the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which honors students who conduct research in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.
The winners, who all just completed their junior year, are:
Royce Dong, a physics and chemistry major in Arts & Sciences.
Dong has served as research assistant in the Micro/Nano Photonics Lab under the guidance of Lan Yang, the Edwin H. & Florence G. Skinner Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering, and wants to develop medical imaging technologies to improve diagnosis and treatment.
Maya Samuels-Fair, a biology major in Arts & Sciences, with an emphasis on ecology and evolution.
Samuels-Fair is a Nemerov Scholar and plans to conduct research across ecosystems, curate a field museum collection and write about conservation for popular audiences.
Lily Xu, a biomedical engineering major at the McKelvey School of Engineering.
Xu is a research intern at the School of Medicine, where she studies virus proteins and the Zika virus. Xu wants to conduct research in biomedical engineering with a focus on virology.
More than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors applied for the scholarship, which was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the legacy of U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater. Scholars receive a $7,500 award.