Students and alumna win prestigious research awards

Miles Johnson, '09

Miles Johnson, ’09, has won a 2007-08 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, science and engineering.

Also, a Richmond senior and a 2007 graduate have received prestigious fellowships for graduate study. Matt Luchansky, ’08, and Katherine Weber, ’07, received National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, highly competitive awards that provide support for graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees. The fellowships provide annual awards of $40,500 for up to three years of graduate research at any institution.

Johnson, who is double majoring in chemistry and Latin American and Iberian studies, is among 321 undergraduates from a field of more than 1,000 students selected nationwide as Goldwater Scholars. The one- and two-year scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year.

Johnson has been conducting research with Wade Downey, assistant professor of chemistry. They study the aldol reaction, a powerful method for making bonds between two carbon atoms, which is frequently used by the pharmaceutical industry for the construction of drugs and drug candidates.

He is a Cigna and J. Gray Wright Scholar and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.

Luchansky is a chemistry and economics double major. He has been conducting glucose-sensing research with Jonathan Dattelbaum, associate professor of chemistry. His work could help lead to the creation of an implantable chip that can provide real-time monitoring of blood glucose levels as an alternative to current blood-testing methods used by diabetics. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Luchansky holds an Ethyl and Albemarle Science Scholarship and has presented his research to the American Society for Microbiology.

Weber received a Marshall Scholarship in 2007. The highly competitive award funds two years of post-graduate study in the United Kingdom. At Richmond, Weber conducted research in the lab of Joe Gindhart, associate professor of biology, and presented her work to the American Society for Cell Biology.

She is pursuing a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Cambridge University. The Marshall Scholarship is covering costs of her first two years, and the NSF fellowship will fund her third year of study. She is researching the relationship between genetics and behavior, using a microscopic worm as a model organism to investigate how naturally occurring genetic changes affect neural networks and animal behavior.