Students honored for achievement

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, in partnership with the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs (NDEP), announced the recipients of the Goldwater Scholarship Awards on March 26, 2021. Tufts undergraduate students Rachel McGinn, E22, and Parker Rule, A23, were honored as scholars in this year’s class.

McGinn, a rising senior in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a Tufts Laidlaw Scholar, conducts research on triple negative breast cancer in the Oudin Lab, and she plans to pursue a PhD after graduation. Her mentors at Tufts include Assistant Professor Madeleine Oudin (Department of Biomedical Engineering), PhD candidate Jackson Fatherree (Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences), and Stern Family Professor in Engineering and Department Chair David Kaplan (Department of Biomedical Engineering).

Rule, a rising junior in the Department of Mathematics in the School of Arts and Sciences, plans to pursue a PhD in computer science upon completion of his undergraduate studies. He conducts research in algorithms and data science, and hopes to teach at the university level or pursue industrial research. He is mentored by Associate Professor Moon Duchin (Department of Mathematics) and Professor Diane Souvaine (Department of Computer Science).

The Goldwater Foundation Scholarship Program is federally endowed to honor the memory of Senator Barry Goldwater. The program fosters and encourages outstanding students to pursue research careers in the fields of the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics. Nearly 10,000 scholarships have been awarded to distinguished undergraduate researchers since 1989.