Just as the COVID-19 pandemic irrevocably altered their semesters, four undergraduate juniors in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington got some life-altering good news: they’d been selected to receive prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, which provide $7,500 in support during their senior year.
The College’s newest Goldwater Scholars are Joshua Beeler, Elizabeth Dietrich, Kelli Michaels, and Andrew Quest.
The four were chosen from a pool of some 1,300 candidates nominated by 461 colleges and universities. The scholarships go to exceptionally promising students in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
This is the third time in the College’s history that all of its Goldwater nominees have won scholarships. Past recipients have gone into medicine, law, and academia. Others have become entrepreneurs. One former IU Goldwater recipient, Matthew Shephard, is now a professor of Physics in the College.
As undergraduates, the 2020 Goldwater scholars have already worked at the leading edge of research in a number of fields. They recently described their projects: