BS/MS student Carli Moorehead (advisor: Michele Marcolongo) has been awarded a 2016 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program seeks to provide “a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.”
This year, 252 scholarships were awarded to undergraduate sophomores and juniors. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,150 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the institutional representatives of 415 colleges and universities nationwide. Each university is allowed to nominated four candidates, and Carli is one of two Drexel nominees who were awarded scholarships.
Carli began her research path as a STAR Scholar in the Cellular Biomechanics Lab in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and extended her STAR work to achieve SuperNova Undergraduate Research Fellow status. She is currently working with Professor Michele Marcolongo’s Biomaterials Laboratory Group to study biomimetic tissue regeneration and repair scaffolds. She is investigating collagen-proteoglycan interactions through electron tomography (3D TEM imaging), using synthetic biomimetic proteoglycan in a simplified collagen extracellular matrix (ECM) model to study the function of proteoglycans within tissue. The technique works like a CT scan for molecules and allows for visualization where the molecules attach to each other and localization in 3 dimensions.
Carli is the second Drexel Materials Science and Engineering student to receive the scholarship, with BS/MS alumna Emily Buck having received the award in 2013. For more information about applying for the Goldwater Scholarship at Drexel, please visit drexel.edu/fellowships/Goldwater or contact Dr. Meredith Wooten, Director, Drexel Fellowships Office.