More than three dozen Indian-American students were named Barry Goldwater Scholars for 2019. They are among the 496 selected from a nationally competitive field of 1,223 mathematics, science and engineering students nominated by their colleges and universities.
Around forty one Indian-Americans from various states won the prestigious scholarship, the largest number (8) from the Midwest; 6 from California; 7 from Tri-state; and 4 from Pennsylvania.
The Goldwater scholarship, which is named for the late Republican senator from Arizona and presented by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, covers up to $7,500 in tuition, books and related fees during the 2019-20 academic year for Kumar, who is a UIC Honors College member.
Wasan Kumar, a sophomore in neuroscience at the University of Illinois, Chicago, is just one example of what Indian-American youth are involved in for the future of technology and science in the United States. Seven others of Indian origin won the scholarship from various higher education institutions in Illinois (see table below).
Kumar has conducted research on the effects of heavy metals in promoting cardiovascular diseases in the laboratory of Dr. Andre Kajdacsy-Balla, professor of pathology in the UIC College of Medicine.
He already has presented findings from these investigations at six conferences — four national and two internal — and submitted two manuscripts for review, the press release said.
“My research looks specifically at the influence of cadmium on increasing the uptake of lipids by macrophage cells in vitro, which is a crucial first step in the progression of atherosclerosis,” Kumar is quoted saying. Apart from the Goldwater Scholarship, Kumar has received grants from the Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Initiative and the Honors College. “Developing projects like this from start to finish has taken a lot of work but has really energized me towards pursuing research.”
A research area of personal relevance to Kumar is the disproportionately high rates of cardiovascular diseases in South Asian populations. Kumar is also the president-elect of the Indian Students Association and as a Global Asian Studies minor.
“This project has allowed me to collaborate with a number of UIC departments and researchers, as well as abroad with researchers in India,” he said.
His future academic goals are to earn a medical degree with a focus in molecular pathology and a Ph.D. in epidemiology, which he will combine to establish a career as a physician-scientist devoted to improving public health.
“My specific research interest is to understand the disease model through a macroscopic population-based lens while considering heterogeneity between individuals at the molecular level,” he said. “This will help tackle a variety of health disparities.”
Kumar, a 2017 graduate of the Illinois Math and Science Academy, also is a health educator and leadership council member for the Peer Health Exchange, a nonprofit organization that teaches health education to inner-city high school freshmen.
His university honors include the Chancellor’s Service and Leadership Award and the Maurice Prize, an undergraduate innovation competition.
LIST OF INDIAN-AMERICAN 2019 GOLDWATER SCHOLARS
Midwest
U of Illinois, Chicago – Nikhil Pandit, Wasan Kumar
U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign – Philip Kocheril
Michigan State U – Mohit Bansil
Creighton U, Nebraska – Siddharth Venkatraman
U of Cincinnati – Chinmay Bakshi, Nihar Rama
University of Wisconsin- Madison – Luquant Singh
California
Cal instit of tech – Gokul Gowri
Stanford – Maya Varma, Sahaj Garg, Bhavish Dinakar
UCLA – Anshul Adve,
UCal, Riverside – Amrik Kang,
Tri-state
UConn – Saurabh Kumar
Yale – Rahul Nagvekar
Rutgers U, NJ – Rikab Gambhir
College of New Jersey – Avi Shah
Columbia U, NY – Amar Bhardwaj, Maya Talukdar
Cornell U, NY – Kabir Kapoor
Pennsylvania
Penn State U Park – Ananda Rankin
UPenn – Srinivas Mandyam
University of Pittsburgh – Swapna Subramanian, Teja Peddada,
Miscellaneous
U of Delaware – Yasmin Mann
Georgia Instit of Tech – Sherry Sarkar
Georgia Southern U – Nitheyaa Shree Ramesh
Johns Hopkins – Vinay Ayyappan
Harvard – Abijith Krishnan
MIT – Ashwin Sah
Duke U,NC – Azim Dharani, Kunal Shroff
North Carolina State U – Nikhil Milind
Brown U, Rhode Island – Tara Thakurta
Fisk U, Tennessee – Anisha Mittal
Vanderbilt U, Tennessee – Aakash Basu
Rice U, TX – Sahil Patel
U of North Texas – Rishi Shridharan
U of Texas at Dallas – Vyom Raval
University of Washington – Irika Sinha
