Ryan Whipkey ’10: Goldwater Honorable Mention
UMaine Student Receives Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
ORONO — Emily Miller, a University of Maine Molecular and Cellular Biology major from Lamoine, has received the prestigious 2009 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. She will receive up to $7,500 per year for up to two academic years for tuition, books or room and board expenses. Ryan Whipkey of Portland, an Honors student who is triple-majoring in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Neuroscience, received an honorable mention. This year, 278 Goldwater Scholars were chosen from a field of 1,097 nationwide on academic merit.
“The recognition our students receive through the Goldwater Scholarship competition is significant and well-deserved,” says Charlie Slavin, dean of the Honors College and UMaine’s faculty representative for the scholarship program. “For students in the sciences and engineering this is nationwide recognition befitting for outstanding students taking advantage of first-class opportunities here at the University of Maine.”
The scholarship was established to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Miller, a sophomore, intends to pursue a dual M.D. and Ph.D. in Clinical Pathology and Molecular Biology, and she says the Goldwater Scholarship will benefit her both academically and professionally.
“This will hopefully help lead me to more internships in the biological sciences and also a top graduate or medical school in the future,” Miller says.
Since her first year at UMaine, she has worked in the lab of Sharon Ashworth, Miller’s faculty mentor and an assistant professor of Biochemistry. She spent last summer doing collaborative research at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory with Ashworth and her German colleague Mario Schiffer on kidney dysfunction. As a result, Miller has spent the 2008-2009 academic year conducting cellular research with Schiffer at Medizinische Hochschule Hannover in Germany.
“These are all connections I wouldn’t have been able to make without quality UMaine professors and early opportunities for research,” Miller says.
More information and a news release about the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship are available online at http://www.act.org/goldwater/.