2003 Goldwater Scholars

Four CU undergrads are winners of 2003 Goldwater Scholarships

By Roger Segelken

Laidre Margelefsky

Parker Shanbhag

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, the most prestigious national awards for undergraduate students in the fields of science, mathematics or engineering, have been won by four Cornell students: Mark Laidre, a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences junior from Gansevoort, N.Y.; Eric L. Margelefsky, a College of Engineering junior from Sylvania, Ohio; Sara T. Parker, a College of Engineering junior from Brecksville, Ohio; and Niraj M. Shanbhag, a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences sophomore from Liverpool, N.Y.

Now in its 15th year, the Goldwater Scholarship programs honors the late U.S. senator from Arizona and provides awards of up to $7,500 per year for each recipient to help cover the costs of tuition, fees, books and room-and-board. This year's 300 Goldwater scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,093 students nominated by colleges and universities nationwide. All four of Cornell's nominees won Goldwater Scholarships this year, and in the past six years, 23 of the university's 24 candidates have been successful -- a record matched only by Duke University. Since 1992, a total of 33 Cornell students have won Goldwater Scholarships, and 10 went on to achieve additional honors, such as the Rhodes Scholarship, Marshall Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship or the Hertz Fellowship.

Mark Laidre, who is majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology as well as neurobiology and behavior, graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 2000. He has conducted research into pheromone communication, forager orientation and resource allocation in colonies of harvester and carpenter ants, and animal-behavior research into visual and tactile signal exchanges among mandrills in zoo habitats.

Laidre has been on the Dean's List each semester since transferring to Cornell from Union College in 2001. His previous awards include a Hughes Scholars Research Grant at Cornell, where he is a member of the university's Animal Behavior Club and Anthropology Club. His ultimate goal, after earning advanced degrees in behavioral ecology, is to teach and conduct research at an academic institution or field station.

Eric Margelefsky, who is majoring in chemical engineering, graduated from Southview High School in 2002. His undergraduate research involves the physical properties of poly-elastomer networks, analyzing the stretching and relaxing behavior of cross-linked networks of molecules and developing mathematical models of materials' characteristics.

Previous honors at Cornell include the A.W. Laubengayer Prize in chemistry, the Spencer Prize for expository writing and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Othmer Academic Excellence Award. A member of the Phi Sigma Pi and Tau Beta Pi honor societies, Margelefsky hopes to earn a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and work in the pharmaceutical industry, developing new processes for the chemical synthesis of medicines.

Sara T. Parker, who is majoring in materials science and engineering, graduated from Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School in 2000. In her undergraduate research, she helped develop more efficient organic light-emitting devices in a Cornell-Princeton University collaboration and, as a member of a nanobiotechnology research team, worked to create periodic structures on silicon-based biosensors.

Among previous honors to Parker are the Gregg Memorial Prize in materials science, GE Faculty for the Future Undergraduate Research Grant and the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship. An officer in the Cornell chapters of the Materials Research Society and ASM International, the metals engineering society, she hopes to pursue a career in research and development in industry or to teach and conduct research at a university.

Niraj M. Shanbhag, who is majoring in biological sciences, graduated from Liverpool High School in 2001. His undergraduate research at Cornell involves trehalose, a sugar found in plants, and its role in plant molecular biology and physiology. In previous immunological research, he studied the disease, lupus erythamatosus, in animal models.

He has been awarded a Cornell Presidential Research Scholarship, National Merit Scholarship, New York State Merit Scholarship and was a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. A member of the Biology Student Curriculum Council, as well as the university's Symphonic Band, Jazz Band and Bhangra Dance Team, Shanbhag would like to earn a Ph.D. degree and then teach and pursue research in molecular biology at the university level.

Cornell's Goldwater Scholarship Endorsement Committee members this year were Barbara Bedford, senior research associate in natural resources; Donald Farley, professor of electrical engineering; Douglas Fitchen, professor of physics; and D. Tyler McQuade, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology. Information on Goldwater Scholarships and other student awards is at the Cornell Career Services Web site: http://www.career.cornell.edu/students/grad/fellowships/prestigious.html.

April 3, 2003