Jiang

Allen Jiang ’18, a chemical engineering major in the College of Engineering, has won a Goldwater Scholarship, the top undergraduate award for students pursuing careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

This year’s 240 Goldwater scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,286 mathematics, science and engineering students from hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide.

The Goldwater Scholarship Program, honoring former Arizona Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year. In the last 12 years, 29 Cornell undergraduates have been named Goldwater scholars and 11 have received honorable mention.

Jiang, from Redmond, Washington, the recipient of the Scheele Outstanding Junior Award and the Engineering Learning Initiative grant (both 2016), is the current head undergraduate teaching assistant in assistant professor Roseanna Zia’s fluid mechanics class.

He is an engineering peer adviser, a peer mentor in the Cornell Chinese Student Association and a research assistant in the lab of Matthew DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering in the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE).

Jiang’s career goal is to conduct research focusing on biological applications of engineering and to teach at the university level. An accomplished pianist, Jiang was nominated for the Goldwater Scholarship by DeLisa and Zia.

Two Cornell students, Anna Overholts ’18 and Archana Podury ’19, received a Goldwater honorable mention.

Overholts, a chemistry and chemical biology major from Zionsville, Pennsylvania, is a Hunter R. Rawlings III Cornell Presidential Scholar. She plans to earn a doctorate in chemistry, conduct research in organic chemistry and teach at the university level.

Podury, a biological sciences major from Cupertino, California, is a research associate in the lab of Jesse Goldberg, assistant professor and the Robert R. Capranica Fellow in the Department of Neurology and Behavior. She plans to earn her M.D./Ph.D. in neuroscience and conduct computational modeling for neurodegenerative diseases.

Cornell’s 2017 Goldwater Scholarship endorsement committee included Paulette Clancy, the Samuel W. and M. Diane Bodman Professor in Chemical Engineering; William Crepet, professor of plant biology; Laurel Southard, director of undergraduate research; Mariana Wolfner, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics; and Beth Fiori, fellowships coordinator.