• May 15th, 2020

Goldwater Scholarship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program has selected a student from The University of Alabama as a Goldwater Scholar for 2020-2021.

Hannah Slater
Hannah Slater

Hannah Slater, a Randall Research Scholar studying chemical engineering and chemistry from New Lenox, Illinois, is the 57th UA student to receive the prestigious Goldwater scholarship. Her parents are Ronald and Tina Slater.

Slater has worked under Dr. David A. Dixon, professor and Robert Ramsay Chair of Chemistry, researching the hydrogen bonding interaction between bioisosteres and amino acids using computational chemistry approaches. According to Slater, there is significant interest in designing drugs with novel binding sites for interactions with specific peptides in proteins to improve pharmaceutical outcomes.

Outside of research, Slater is president of UA’s student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, vice president of UA’s student chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and volunteers at DCH Regional Medical Center. She also works as a residential adviser on campus.

 

Slater plans on pursuing a medical degree as well as a doctorate in biomedical informatics with the goal of conducting clinical computational oncology research while directing a lab at the university level.

Scholarships of up to $7,500 a year are provided to help cover costs associated with tuition, mandatory fees, books, and room and board.

Source: https://www.ua.edu/news/2020/04/ua-student-receives-goldwater-scholarship/


Hollings Scholarship

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Three University of Alabama students will receive the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship for 2020-2022.

The awardees are Elizabeth Batts, of Kingsport, Tennessee; Max Hawkins, of Renner, South Dakota; and Nicholas Hayes, of Memphis, Tennessee.

UA Hollings Scholars
From left, Elizabeth Batts, Max Hawkins and Nicholas Hayes.

The scholarship provides a two-year academic award of $9,500 per year, and a 10-week, full-time, paid summer internship opportunity at any NOAA facility nationwide. Scholars also receive funding to present their NOAA research projects at two national scientific conferences.

Since the program’s inception in 2005, 36 UA students have been named Hollings Scholars.

Batts is a Randall Research Scholar majoring in marine science, biology and physics. She conducts research under Dr. Kevin Kocot, assistant professor of biological sciences, on the global biodiversity of aplacophora and biodiversity of Icelandic euphrosinidae. For these projects, Batts makes DNA barcodes to analyze the phylogenetic relationship between samples. Outside of research, she is an assistant team leader for the Center for Service and Leadership and president of the Marine Science Club.

Hawkins is a computer engineering major and Randall Research Scholar. He has worked under Dr. Jeremy Bailin, associate professor of physics and astronomy, to improve radio astronomy data using machine learning techniques.

His research continues work Hawkins did last summer at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. This summer, he will remotely intern at Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million initiative to search for civilizations beyond Earth. Hawkins is also a member of UA’s EcoCar team.

Hayes is a Randall Research Scholar pursuing a diverse combination of majors and minors in mathematics, physics, interdisciplinary linguistics, German and computer science. Hayes serves as an undergraduate research assistant for Dr. Firat Soylu, assistant professor of educational psychology and neuroscience, and Dr. Zhe Jiang, assistant professor of computer science.

He contributes to projects focusing on bilingual math cognition, machine learning and spatiotemporal data mining with applications in earth science. Outside of research, Hayes is an Honors College Ambassador, Tide Talks executive team member and co-founder of Tuscaloosa’s chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States of America.

 

Source: https://www.ua.edu/news/2020/05/three-ua-students-earn-hollings-scholarships/

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