April 19, 2018
Three students receive Goldwater honorable mentions
Submitted by Division of Communications and Marketing
Reid Erdwien, junior in physics and math, Manhattan; Gabrielle Phillips, junior in chemical engineering, Andover; and Alexa Wilden, sophomore in microbiology and pre-medicine, Gardner, have received honorable mentions for the 2018 Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
Wilden is president-elect of the Pre-Health Ambassadors and a member of Pre-Med Club and K-State's Symphony Orchestra. She volunteered for the Alternative Breaks Program to Dallas. She also serves as a student assistant for the Division of Biology Freshman Orientation and Enrollment and K-State's Biosecurity Research Institute's National Livestock Readiness Program and Pathways Risk Analysis. A member of the Honors Program, Wilden has also received the Blue Key Senior Honorary Neal Atkinson Scholarship, Division of Biology Most Promising Student Award, Larry G. Williams Scholarship in the Division of Biology, K-INBRE Undergraduate Research Scholarship, Johnson Cancer Center Research Award, College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Award, June Hull Sherrid Cancer Center Scholarship, semester honors, K-State's Putnam Scholarship, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra Scholarship and AIDS Services of Dallas Outstanding Support Award. In addition, she volunteers for Via Christi Emergency Department, Surgical Services and T. Russell Reitz Animal Shelter. Under the mentorship of Stella Lee, assistant professor in biology, she is investigating cellular mechanisms and the role deficiencies play in certain diseases as part of her undergraduate research.
Phillips is the vice president of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, membership coordinator for Tau Beta Pi and member of Reformed University Fellowship. She has received an undergraduate Cancer Research Award from the Johnson Cancer Research Center, Putnam Scholarship, and the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation Scholarship. She was named a K-INBRE campus scholar, and DAAD and GCRI Foundation RISE Germany intern in 2017. As an undergraduate researcher, Phillips has worked for the Kansas Lipidomics Research Center, mentored by Ruth Welti, university distinguished professor in the Division of Biology. Phillips is researching the characterization of enzyme functions of Arabidopsis, a model organism in plant genetic research.
As an undergraduate researcher, Erdwien is researching the 3-D momentum imaging of dissociation in flight of metastable molecules with Itzik Ben-Itzhak, university distinguished professor in physics. He also was a teaching assistant for Advanced Physics Laboratory. He was named a James R. Macdonald Memorial Scholar in 2016 and 2017. He also received the Leonard E. Fuller Scholarship in 2017 and the Arts and Sciences Research Grant for summer 2016.