OXFORD, Miss — Three students at the University of Mississippi, for the first time, have been awarded Goldwater Scholarships in a single year.
Ethan Lambert, of Corinth, Mississippi; Reinhard "Matt" Knerr, of Paducah, Kentucky; and Alexandria "Ally" Watrous, of Lexington, Kentucky, all members of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, have become the university's 19th, 20th and 21st winners.
This year, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded 417 scholarships from a pool of 1,242 undergraduates nominated by 433 institutions. The Goldwater is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. It supports exceptional sophomores and juniors who show promise in becoming the next generation of research leaders in these fields.
"Ethan, Matt and Ally have all presented an incredible commitment to a career in research, and a genuine display of intellectual curiosity," said Vivian Ibrahim, director of the UM Office of National Scholarship Advisement. "This is the first time UM has had three Goldwater scholars. We couldn't be more excited for them."
Lambert is set to graduate in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He hopes to apply for a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation next year to fund a doctorate in chemistry with a focus on studying how to use light to induce electron transfers between small molecules.
Knerr is pursuing a degree in biochemistry, with minors in neuroscience, biological sciences, environmental studies and psychology.
Watrous is the only Ole Miss sophomore to be awarded a Goldwater, which will provide funding for her junior and senior years at the university. She is pursuing bachelor's degrees in chemistry with a chemical physics emphasis, in physics and in German with minors in French and mathematics. In the long term, Watrous is interested in collaborating internationally while conducting research in computational chemistry.
