By Amy Lunday
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Three of the 317 students awarded Goldwater Scholarships for the 2007-2008 academic year are undergraduates at Johns Hopkins. The one- and two-year merit-based scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

The Goldwater Foundation, which grants the scholarships, is a federally endowed agency established in 1986. The program honoring the late Sen. Barry M. Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. The foundation has awarded 5,202 scholarships worth approximately $51 million.

The three Johns Hopkins Goldwater Scholars are:

Ishrat Ahmed, a molecular and cellular biology major in the Krieger School who anticipates earning her degree in 2009. She aspires to be a physician-scientist studying neurodegenerative disorders. To that end, Ahmed, 19, works in the lab of Ted Dawson, a neurology professor in the School of Medicine and a leader in the field of Parkinson's research, and under the direct mentorship of Joseph Savitt, also a neurologist in the School of Medicine. Ahmed is from Middleton, Wis.

Suraj Kabadi, a biomedical engineering major in the Whiting School who anticipates earning his degree in 2008. He would like to have a career as a physician-scientist, using biomedical engineering — especially nanotechnology — to develop medical devices and surgical instruments. Kabadi, 21, is from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Chih-Ping Mao, a molecular and cellular biology major in the Krieger School who anticipates earning his degree in 2009. He plans to pursue a career as a medical scientist developing novel immunological and chemical therapies for cancer and investigating the field of molecular pathology. Mao, 20, lives in Austin, Texas.

The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,110 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. One hundred seventy-four of the scholars are men, 143 are women, and most intend to obtain a PhD.

GO TO MAY 21, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE FRONT PAGE.