Two NC State University Students Win Goldwater Scholarships

North Carolina State University undergraduates Nathan Bihlmeyer and Patrick Bowen, both of Wake Forest, N.C., have won prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for the 2010-11 academic year.

Bihlmeyer and Bowen are among 278 recipients of the honor. They were selected from a field of 1,111 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. The awards are based on academic merit and cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Thirty-five NC State students have received the Goldwater Scholarship since the program’s inception in 1986.

A junior majoring in biochemistry, Bihlmeyer is a member of the University Honors Program and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Honors Program. He is active in the Genetics Club, having served as its vice-president and president, and has performed research in the laboratory of Dr. Bob Franks in NC State’s Department of Genetics. He received a grant from the NC State Office of Undergraduate Research to support his research and was selected to present his work at the Atlantic Coast Conference’s “Meeting of the Minds” undergraduate research symposium in 2009. Bihlmeyer intends to earn a Ph.D. in genetics and to pursue a career in human genetics research.

Bowen, a junior majoring in both physics and electrical and computer engineering, has engaged in a variety of research experiences, beginning in his senior year in high school when he worked on a project at the Friday Institute on NC State’s Centennial Campus. He has also worked in the laboratories of physics professor Dr. Cheung R. Ji and Dr. Michael J. Escuti, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. Bowen is currently spending a year at the University of Surrey in England, where he is performing research in the Advanced Technology Institute with the goal of developing organic solar cells. He intends to earn a Ph.D. in applied physics and to conduct research in molecular electronics and teach at the university level.

Goldwater Scholarship selections are made by the board of trustees of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, a federally endowed agency established to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

– kulikowski –