Four Georgetown undergraduate students have been named 2022 Goldwater Scholars in honor of their research in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering.
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, an agency that partners with the U.S. Department of Defense to recognize student achievements in scientific research, gave the awards, which consist of up to $7,500 to be used for tuition, fees, books, room and board for sophomores and juniors.
This year’s Goldwater Scholars — Aryaman Arora (COL ’24), Adrian Kalaw (COL ’23), Dominic Pham (COL ’23) and Nadia Sadanandan (NHS ’24) — were selected from a pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors.
This year marks the first time since 2006 that more than one Georgetown student has been named a Goldwater Scholar in a given year, according to Lauren Tuckley, director of Georgetown’s Center for Research and Fellowships (CRF). The center supports Georgetown students in applying to competitive fellowships like the Fulbright Student Scholars Program.
Arora, who centered his research for the award on computer translations and the encoding of South Asian languages, said this work allowed him to connect to his heritage while also contributing to an often overlooked field.
“I really like this kind of research — it appeals to both my academic interests and is a way to engage with my culture,” Arora wrote to The Hoya. “At the end of the day I want things I work on to benefit people and be openly accessible, and research is a practical way of doing that.”
Sadanandan, whose research focuses on tumor biology in zebrafish, hopes to apply what she learns through research as a Goldwater Scholar to eventually become a pediatric oncologist.
“In high school, one of my best friend’s fathers passed away from cancer and that drove me to wanting to research this,” Sadanandan said in an interview with The Hoya. “Also, one of my favorite teachers from high school passed from cancer, which has led me to wanting to discover more and help find solutions for this.”
As a Goldwater Scholar, Pham is excited to continue to pursue and conduct research, which he became passionate about while at Georgetown.
“I entered Georgetown knowing I wanted to try scientific research, but I didn’t really know what it was,” Pham wrote. “My journey to getting involved in research was filled with a lot of luck—being in the right place at the right time and having research mentors who guided me from one step to the next.”
Pham previously served as Managing Editor and Creative Director at The Hoya.
Kalaw’s submission for the Goldwater scholarship applied computational methods to the examination of protein mutation in antimalarial drug resistance, which he said was an unconventional and unprecedented research strategy.
“I was in uncharted territories for our lab and our field applying novel methods at the boundary of what we do and do not know,” Kalaw wrote to The Hoya. “I had never felt more excited to be a scientist.”
Becoming a Goldwater Scholar is an honor for students who devoted time and effort to research that they are passionate about, according to Pham.
“The Goldwater Scholarship really validates my work thus far and my decision to pursue a research career,” Pham wrote to The Hoya. “I’m incredibly grateful to my academic mentors, family, and friends for their support and inspiration.”
The Goldwater Scholarship’s esteemed reputation in the science fields makes this an impressive accomplishment for the university, according to CRF’s Tuckley.
“The Goldwater is our nation’s most prestigious undergraduate STEM scholarship,” Tuckley wrote to The Hoya. “This achievement reflects both the high quality of our students’ engagement in rigorous research and the outstanding faculty mentorship that occurs at the university.”
