March 31, 2017

The Drexel Fellowships Office is excited to announce that three Drexel students have received Honorable Mentions for the 2017 Goldwater Scholarship competition: Evan Bisirri, Emily Ostrow, and Andrew Pellegrino. Congratulations!

These students were selected from a highly-competitive pool of natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering students nominated by Goldwater campus representatives from among 2,000 colleges and universities nationwide. We are delighted they've been recognized for their hard work and potential.

2017 Goldwater Honorable Mentions

Evan Bisirri (Biomedical Engineering, BS/MS, ’18, Honors) is a junior biomedical engineering student concentrating in biomechanics. Evan began his research experience in the Drexel Biomechanics lab as part of the STAR scholars program where he studied age related morphometric changes in normative pediatric thoracic vertebrae under the guidance of Dr. Sriram Balasubramanian and PhD candidate James Peters. This experience inspired Evan to pursue a research co-op at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention where he utilized computational modeling techniques to study occupant kinematics and injury mechanisms in motor vehicle crashes. Evan is currently conducting fluid-structure interaction research with Dr. Amy Throckmorton on a collapsible impeller pump for the Fontan circulation at the Drexel BioCirc lab. Evan plans to pursue a PhD in Biomedical engineering, with focuses in computational modeling and cardiovascular engineering.

Emily Ostrow (BS/MS Environmental Science ’18, Honors) is a fourth year environmental science student with a concentration in ecology and conservation. Emily started doing research her freshman year through the STAR program working with Jon Wnek, Dane C. Ward, and Walter F. Bien. While in the Laboratory of Pinelands Research, she focused on both diamondback terrapin and northern pine snake conservation research. Emily is currently working in the ornithology department at the Academy of Natural Sciences on her thesis research with Jason D. Weckstein and Nathan H. Rice. She is focusing on detecting the bacteria that causes Lyme disease in wild bird populations in both Pennsylvania and Illinois. This past year she also participated in an international museum collecting trip to Nicaragua. Emily plans on pursuing a PhD with a research focus in ornithology.

Andrew Pellegrino (BS Physics ’18) is a fourth-year physics student minoring in computer science. Andrew's first research experience at Drexel was through the STAR program under the guidance of Dr. Dave Goldberg, where he created an Android game to teach effects of Einstein's theory of special relativity. This experience led him to pursue a research co-op with Dr. Goral Karapetrov (Condensed Matter Group), which involved creating and studying the optical properties of nanosheets of titanium diselenide. For his second co-op, Andrew helped develop a comprehensive star cluster simulation with stellar feedback under the guidance of Dr. McMillan (Astrophysics Group) and PhD student Joshua Wall. He will be conducting research with Dr. Gordon Richards during Spring/Summer 2017. Andrew plans to pursue a PhD in astrophysics, studying cosmology or star cluster formation with a focus on computation.

The Goldwater Scholarship was established by Congress in 1986, with the goal of recognizing the nation's top undergraduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields. The purpose of the Foundation is 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. Applicants are evaluated on the basis of outstanding academic performance and demonstrated potential for and commitment to a successful research career in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.

For more information about the Goldwater Scholarship, please email Dr. Meredith Wooten, Director, Center for Scholar Development.