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Three IU Bloomington undergraduate students named Goldwater Scholars

May 3, 2019

Three students in the Indiana University Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences have been named Goldwater Scholars for the 2019-20 academic year. The honor recognizes outstanding college sophomores and juniors who show great promise in math, science or engineering.

Kaeli Bryant, Maria del Valle Coello and Julian Gass are among the 496 students selected by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, the federally endowed agency that awards the scholarships. The scholars were selected from over 5,000 students at 443 colleges and universities.

Bryant, a junior from Greenwood, Indiana, is studying life sciences. She has conducted independent research on viral infection and host response in support of the search for new methods to curb the spread of highly infectious viral pathogens like Zika and Ebola through genetic manipulations. Her nominators also cite her “ability to assimilate new information quickly and deeply, and then to apply her knowledge to her ongoing research.” Her career goals include earning a doctorate in immunology.

Bryant’s faculty mentor is Irene Newton, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology.

Del Valle Coello, a junior from Evansville, Indiana, is studying physics and astronomy. She has been assisting with optical measurements for the liquid argon neutrino detector at Oak Ridge National Lab as a member of the lab of Rex Tayloe, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics. She is also a Cox Research Scholar and a participant in IU’s Science, Research and Technology Scholar Program, or STARS, and she holds leadership positions with several student science organizations. Her career goals include earning a doctorate in physics and astrophysics and working at a national laboratory or teaching at the university level.

Her faculty mentors are Tayloe and Eileen Friel, an associate dean and professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Astronomy.

Gass, a junior from Bloomington, Indiana, is pursuing research on physics. He has made significant contributions to the design of the ATLAS experiment, one of four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, in Switzerland. Gass, whose participation in the project took place through a highly selective semester abroad program administered by the University of Michigan, recently earned top marks in online graduate courses while simultaneously adhering to a rigorous research schedule at the facility. His career goals include earning a doctorate in physics.

Gass’ faculty mentor is Hal Evans, a professor in the Department of Physics.

The Goldwater Foundation was established by Congress to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, science and engineering. The foundation is named in honor of the late Sen. Barry Goldwater.

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