Three Cornell undergraduates earn Goldwater scholarships

Three Cornell juniors -- Michael Barany, Alexandra Denby and Alisa Mo -- are among 317 undergraduates nationwide who have been awarded 2007 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for academic excellence in math, science and engineering.

This year's students were selected from a field of 1,110 students nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities across the country. The one- and two-year Goldwater scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and room and board up to $7,500 per year. Many Goldwater scholars go on to win Marshall Awards, Rhodes Scholarships and other prominent honors.

Barany, a math major and College Scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences from Falcon Heights, Minn., is on the road to a career as a mathematician; he hopes also to incorporate disciplines from history to the natural sciences into his research. His College Scholar project explores the history and philosophy of mathematics, and he is particularly interested in approaching a wide variety of subjects from a mathematical background.

He is a recipient of the City of Falcon Heights Neal Kwong Youth Citizenship Award and was also a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search and a semifinalist in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Barany is a member of the Cornell branch of the Telluride Association, and he has played trumpet and French horn in the Cornell Wind Ensemble and the Cornell Wind Symphony.

Denby, a computational biology major and computer science minor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences from Berkeley Heights, N.J., is interested in a career in applied genomics and biological statistics. Also a Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, Denby has been involved in research analyzing the macaque genome, optimizing a genetic algorithm used to identify particular regions of DNA and other genetics and ecology projects.

She says the field of genomics allows her to combine her interest in computer science, statistics and biology, added to which it is a young field, full of possibilities. "I think it's really fascinating research," she said. "There's so much going on, it's incredible."

Alisa Mo, a biology and math major in the College of Arts and Sciences from Plano, Texas, plans to earn a joint M.D./Ph.D. and focus her career on tackling some of the world's "neglected diseases": tropical parasitic and bacterial infections that predominantly affect the developing regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas. Her current research includes a study of ventricular fibrillation using experimental and mathematical approaches. "I really enjoy it. It's something new and exciting every day," she said.

Mo also founded and served as president of Cornell Health International, a student group working to raise awareness on campus about global heath issues that has sent several groups of students abroad for volunteer work in developing countries. She serves as student representative to the advisory board for Cornell's new global health minor and volunteers as a writing tutor.

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