High achievers recognized

Pictured above from top left: Ryan “Hunter” Wilson, Phoebe Cook, Jonathan Gerhard and Kelly Gunn.

Chemistry major Ryan "Hunter" Wilson has been named a 2017 Goldwater Scholarship winner. The Goldwater Foundation named 240 Goldwater Scholars and 307 Honorable Mentions from a pool of 1,286 nominations from 470 institutions. Wilson is a junior who works with Dr. Isaiah Sumner.

Coleman Swaim, also a junior Chemistry major, was named a Goldwater Honorable Mention.

A pair of students — Phoebe Cook, a master's degree student in biology, and Jonathan Gerhard, an undergraduate mathematics major (and a 2016 Goldwater Scholar) — received awards from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program. The NSF GRFP provides funding for doctoral training in NSF-funded fields of study. In 2017, NSF had over 13,000 applications for 2000 award offers. David Boyle, a chemistry major, and Grant Rybnicky, a biotechnology major, were named Honorable Mentions.

One current student and a recent graduate received Fulbright English Teaching Assistant awards. Kelly Gunn, a fifth-year elementary education major, will teach in Romania; Jason Mann, who earned a bachelor's degree in international relations in May 2016, was selected for a Fulbright ETA to Colombia.