Rising engineering senior Ethan Nguyen has been named a 2022 Barry A. Goldwater Scholar. He joins rising seniors Alexandra Duncan, Andrew Hanna, and 2021 scholar and fellow rising senior Joseph Sexton for a new Vanderbilt institutional record of four current Goldwater Scholars.
The Goldwater Scholarship is the nation’s most competitive scholarship for undergraduate STEM students who show exceptional promise for becoming the nation’s next generation of research leaders. In collaboration with the Department of Defense National Defense Education Program, and with additional support from Congress, Goldwater Scholars receive up to $7,500 per year toward educational expenses for the remainder of the student’s undergraduate career.
Nguyen, a computer science and mathematics (honors) major from Centreville, Virginia, conducts research in machine learning and deep learning within the context of computer vision. He is currently studying at the American University of Paris. He intends to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science and conduct research into computer vision and medical image analysis techniques.
A SyBBURE undergraduate researcher and Lera Stevens Scholar, Nguyen has conducted research under Yuankai Huo, assistant professor of computer science, Katrina Leaptrot, research assistant professor of chemistry, and Jonathan D. Ehrman in the SyBBURE Searle Lab, Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center and at Catholic University of America.
Andrew Hanna, a biochemistry major from Lutz, Florida, is a research assistant in the lab of Craig Duvall, Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and professor of biomedical engineering, focusing on the development of sheer-thinning hyaluronic-acid hydrogels for diabetic wound healing. Hanna intends to pursue a Ph.D. in biochemistry with a focus on platform development and molecular design.
A total of 475 Goldwater Scholars were selected this year from a pool of 1,242 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 433 institutions. Since the inception of program in 1986, 9,870 undergraduates have been named Goldwater Scholars. Goldwater Scholars frequently go on to win other major fellowships, including the Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615 343-6314
brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu