Two students nominated by the Henry M. Rowan Higher education of Engineering have acquired the prestigious 2022 Goldwater Scholarship.
Ashleigh Jankowski, a junior from Catonsville, Maryland, is majoring in biomedical engineering in the pharmaceutical engineering and therapeutic delivery monitor with a minor in chemistry.
Isabella Marshall, a junior from Highland Park, Middlesex County, is majoring in electrical and laptop or computer engineering and arithmetic, though also pursuing minors in mechanical engineering and laptop science. Equally learners are pursuing the Thomas N. Bantivoglio Honors Concentration in the Honors College.
The federally endowed Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Schooling Method is a person of the most prestigious awards undergraduate pupils in the normal sciences, mathematics and engineering fields can acquire. Below the scholarship application, pupils may possibly be awarded up to $7,500 for each 12 months in funding for their faculty charges. The award acknowledges pupils with high probable to come to be leaders in their area and who intend to go after the Ph.D. degree.
Jankowski is the fourth Goldwater Scholar in the final five years to represent both equally Rowan’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Honors School.
“It’s validating to see something tangible appear out of putting in all this work,” Jankowski mentioned.
Jankowski serves as president of the Rowan pupil chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Culture and as company chair for the Rowan student chapter of the Society of Gals Engineers. Considering that her freshman year, she has worked as an undergraduate analysis assistant in Dr. Mark Byrne’s lab alongside with doctoral pupil Robert Mosley.
“Ashleigh is one of the top learners in our important,” explained Byrne, founding department head and professor of biomedical engineering. “When you have students who are clever, diligent and curious and you give them the option to get the job done on state-of-the-art research, it is really exciting to see them improve and mature. It has been a satisfaction to perform with Ashleigh, as she is one of the most gifted researchers I have suggested.”
Each in Byrne’s lab and for the duration of investigate internships in other places, together with a Nationwide Science Foundation fellowship at the University of Maryland previous summertime, Jankowski has excelled in what Byrne named “groundbreaking, reducing-edge exploration.”
In Byrne’s lab, Jankowski is functioning on “biomimetic nucleic acid drug shipping and delivery nanocarriers.” These are novel DNA- and RNA-coated nanoparticles that mimic the way some cancer medications work by binding to DNA. The system is made use of in a new way to style and design and develop additional efficient particles with managed release and high loading of chemotherapeutic medications.
Jankowski claimed she programs to pursue her Ph.D. and a vocation in academia.
“I hope to just one day operate my very own university lab, so I can mentor and give again to pupils though continuing to make breakthroughs in research,” Jankowski said.
Marshall is the very first Goldwater Scholarship recipient nominated by Rowan’s Department of Electrical & Computer system Engineering.
By her “untraditional” high college path of 3 years of self-directed discovering, Marshall completed 90 credits of local community school courses right before coming to Rowan. Outside of academics, she functions with President Ali Houshmand on the West Campus farm and is a competitive circus arts athlete, coaching youngsters in circus arts and accomplishing for charitable companies that principally assistance small children. Marshall also has been named a University Innovation Fellow.
Investigate has been a regular focus throughout Marshall’s higher education vocation. Just lately, she interned at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, acquiring a application to expedite the intricate calculations nuclear fusion reactors use to deliver thoroughly clean plasma power. This summer months, she will intern at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell College, applying STEM to build extra sustainable agriculture.
“Not only does Isabella do so much, but she does it all so well,” claimed Dr. Robi Polikar, head of the Division of Electrical & Laptop or computer Engineering. “Perhaps a lot more indicative of students’ genuine aptitude than grades are issue-resolving abilities, and Isabella is capable of palms-on application usually witnessed only in the very best college students at the graduate level.”
Aspect of why Marshall has “the makings of a fantastic researcher,” Polikar explained, is due to the fact her interests in research are carefully tied to an fascination in doing excellent.
“Isabella is passionate about applying her skills for social great, like leads to like clean up vitality and sustainability,” claimed Polikar. “For an undergraduate to have so substantially target on investigate for the larger fantastic paints a photograph you really don’t see normally.”