AUSTIN, Texas—Seniors Rachel Ward and Jeffrey Woodruff at The University of Texas at Austin are among 310 students nationally who have been named 2004 Goldwater Scholars. The scholarships are awarded annually to outstanding second- and third-year college students enrolled in science and engineering programs.
Ward, a mathematics major, and Woodruff, a biology major, will each receive $7,500 a year for the remainder of their undergraduate educations.
Ward has participated in mathematics research at the university, Texas AandM University and Cornell University. She has presented her research at conferences at Cornell and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and has an upcoming paper this year in the journal Theoretical Population Biology. She plans to pursue a doctor’s degree in applied mathematics and a faculty position that will allow her to teach and conduct research.
Woodruff also will seek a doctor’s degree in pursuit of a tenured professorship. At the university, he is studying mechanisms that regulate the embryological development of leeches. During previous research at the University of Wisconsin, he discovered a mechanism that controls the production of specific protein structures. The structures occur on the surface of heart cells and influence a person’s heartbeat. Pharmaceutical companies can use information on the mechanism Woodruff discovered to design medications that are less likely to produce irregular heartbeats or other side effects.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation is a federally funded agency established in 1986. Since then, it has distributed more than $40 million to about 4,000 students.
For more information contact: Barbra Rodriguez, College of Natural Sciences, 512-232-0675.
