The prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program was established to provide scholarships to outstanding students who intend to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses up to a maximum of $7,500 annually for undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and housing. In awarding scholarships, the foundation of trustees considers the nominee’s field of study and career objectives along with the extent to which that individual has the commitment and potential to make a significant contribution to the field of science or engineering. Four Auburn University students were nominated for the Goldwater Scholarship this year.

[separator style=”regular”]
Headshot of Maddy Gohlke, Goldwater NomineeMs. Madison Gohlke, an Honors College junior from Anniston, Alabama is pursuing a major in Animal Sciences. Madison’s research, under the direction of Dr. Terry Brandebourg, Associate Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, examines hyperphagic obesity in the Mangalica pig and its linkage to metabolic disease. For the past two years Madison has successfully developed a novel, non-invasive sampling technique for measuring circulating blood glucose concentrations in pigs.

[separator style=”regular”]
Mr. Seth Rankins, an Honors College junior from Cussetta, Alabama is pursuing a major in wildlife ecology and management in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences. For the past two years, Seth has worked under the direction of Dr. Stephen Ditchkoff in the SFWS examining issues related to white-tailed deer, and more recently has been working with both Dr. Ditchkoff and Dr. Sarah Zohdy in the SFWS studying tick borne diseases, anaplasmosis, and erlichiosis in white-tailed deer. Seth’s research includes extracting genomic DNA from over 200 white-tailed deer from a marked population of deer at the Auburn University Deer Lab in an effort to quickly diagnose anaplasmosis and erlichiosis and prevent its spread.

[separator style=”regular”]
Mr. Matthew Rogers, an Honors College junior from Huntsville, Alabama is pursuing a major in software engineering. For the past year, Matthew has worked under the supervision of Dr. Anthony Skjellum, Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Matthew is currently working to develop a malware analysis tool in an effort to identify ransomware – a malicious program that denies critical access to a computer system until a ransom is paid.

 

[separator style=”regular”]

Mr. Ayden Kish, an Honors College junior from Santa Rosa Beach, Florida is a double major in Physics and Philosophy with a minor in Mathematics.  Ayden’s research, under the direction of Dr. Edward Thomas, professor in the Department of Physics is an investigation of particle transport in a complex (dusty) plasma – a novel type of plasma system in which small, charged microspheres are suspended in an ionized gas environment.  His research focuses on the use of particle image velocimetry (PIV) to obtain time and space resolved measurements of the motion of the microspheres in order to determine the electrical properties of the background plasma and the forces that lead to poloidally rotating structures in the complex plasma.