SMU Students Receive Goldwater Foundation Distinctions

DALLAS, TX (05/21/2013)(readMedia)-- DALLAS(SMU)- An SMU junior has been named a 2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, and a sophomore was awarded Honorable Mention in the national Goldwater Scholar competition. The competitive scholarship comprised 1,107 students nominated by colleges and universities nationwide.

Junior Eric Alt, Goldwater Scholar and Garland,Texas resident, is majoring in chemistry and in mechanical engineering. He has worked in the chemistry research lab with chemistry professor Dieter Cremer's Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Group. Alt's nominating mentors were professors Cremer, Michael Lattman and David Son.

"Eric is an extremely talented chemistry student who, thanks to the Goldwater Scholarship, will investigate how to clean toxic heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead from industrial wastewater using organic tweezer molecules," said Cremer.

Sophomore Janice Kim, Goldwater Honorable Mention and a Cedar Rapids, Iowa resident, is a biological sciences major. She has worked as a researcher in professor Robert Harrod's molecular virology lab. Kim's nominating mentors were professors Harrod, Larry Ruben and Roberto Vega.

"Janice is an exceptionally talented student and her research in my lab has helped advance our fundamental understanding of how certain viruses can cause human cancers," said Harrod, SMU associate professor of biological sciences.

Alt plans to pursue a research career specializing in chemistry while

Kim plans to pursue a career in medical research. In the past 23 years, 28 SMU students have been named Goldwater Scholars or Honorable Mentions.

The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of mathematics, science and engineering students. The federally endowed scholarship program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.