Three Johns Hopkins juniors named Goldwater Scholars

Three Johns Hopkins University students have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships for their research and achievements in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

Annie Liang, Mickey Sloat, and Turner Woody are among a cohort of 396 Goldwater Scholars selected for 2020-2021 from a pool of more than 5,000 applicants.

Established in 1986, the Goldwater Scholarship was one of the first significant national scholarships focusing on STEM fields. The program awards winners $7,500 for tuition, fees, books, and room and board. The national recognition has also been known to give students a competitive edge when pursuing graduate fellowships in their fields.

Each school may nominate up to four sophomores and juniors, who are selected for their research record and promise as future leaders in STEM fields.

2020-2021 Goldwater Scholars from Johns Hopkins

Annie Liang is a junior completing degrees in biomedical engineering and applied math and statistics. She plans to complete her PhD in BME and aspires to develop mathematical models of the cardiovascular system to gain biological and mechanistic insights in her field while teaching at the university level. As part of an undergraduate BME design team, she is currently working on designing user-centered hearing devices for older adults with dementia.

Mickey Sloat is a junior molecular and cellular biology major who plans to pursue a PhD in cancer and cell biology. Sloat hopes to work as a physician scientist, leading a pediatric oncology research group studying the regulation of cell cycle mechanisms and their irregularities in various cancers. Sloat is the founder of SciComm, an organization focused on improving undergraduates' ability to read, analyze, and present science and scientific research.

Turner Woody is a junior physics major who plans to pursue a PhD in astrophysics. A recipient of the Maryland Space Grant Consortium Scholarship, Woody also serves as the activities/outreach coordinator for the Hopkins chapter of the Society of Physics Students. His research includes work identifying whether the Milky Way's globular clusters originated in our galaxy by calculating their orbital characteristics. Further research involved identifying r-process element enriched metal poor stars from the RAdial Velocity Experiment astronomical survey.

Students interested in applying for the Goldwater and other nationally competitive scholarships can contact the National Fellowships Program for more information.