2026-27 MWC Scholars

Endowment Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology
• Samuel's research is focused on using viral elements of the human genome to induce cell death in ovarian cancer cells, as well as attracting cells from the immune system to attack ovarian tumors. 

Doris and Karl Pierson Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Tumor Biology
• Douglas research goal is to identify the role of the disordered activation domain of estrogen receptor α in hormone-induced transcription.

MWC Chapter Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Chemistry
• Nicholas' research centers on engineering the pore space in ultra-microporous organic crystalline materials for use in useful commodity air gas chemical separations. 

Mars Foundation Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Biology
• Hannah's research will identify the mechanisms underlying the regulation and targeting of a precision antibacterial in an effort to understand their potential as an alternative treatment for deadly bacterial infections. 

Helen & Glenn Miller Undergraduate Scholar

• Undergraduate Scholar, Biochemistry and Government
• Anish is examining the effects of ligand identity on the growth and morphology of cerium nanoparticles from cerium-oxo cluster precursors as part of the Knope Group.

Barbara Luchsinger Memorial Scholar

• Second Year Scholar, Computer Engineering
• Isaac's work addresses communication bottlenecks in Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) LLM inference through hardware-software co-design tailored to the communication patterns of attention and MoE layers.

MWC Chapter Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Chemistry
• Elizabeth's research focuses on synthesizing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that capture and detect radioactive noble gases, providing new tools for nuclear forensics and environmental monitoring. 

JCM Foundation Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
• Morgan's research harnesses technologies in optogenetics, high-throughput imaging, and 3D-human cell/tissue engineering to achieve rapid and robust pacing of native cardiac tissues by light, which can scale up and improve preclinical drug testing, advance new light-powered cardiac devices, and aid efforts in regenerative medicine.

Toni and Hans Schierling Undergraduate Scholar

• Undergraduate Scholar, Physics and Data Science
• Catherine's work automates the analysis of gorilla behaviors and features using deep machine learning.

Global Autoimmune Institute Scholar 

• First Year Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
• Ian is investigating how specific epithelial populations in the airways shape immune responses in the context of allergic asthma, as well as developing lipid nanoparticle-based delivery systems to therapeutically target these cells.

Mars Foundation Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Geography & Environmental Engineering
• Kristan's research estimates CO2 sources and sinks in the Amazon, using NASA satellite data to model broader tropical South America to understand the environmental levers and knobs that control the contemporary tropical carbon cycle in one of Earth's most vulnerable environments.

Joan Jordano Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Immunology
• Hannah's research demonstrates a promising new gene-therapy approach that uses an AAV delivery system to provide long-lasting protection against deadly fungal infections by prompting muscle cells to secrete long-lasting, protective antibodies.

ARCS MWC Co-Presidents Undergraduate Scholar 

• Undergraduate Scholar, Applied Mathematics & Statistics and Physics
• Varvara's research focuses on developing vision-enabled large language models that integrate medical image analysis and natural language processing to support efficient, accurate, and scalable computational pathology workflows.

Angie Delaney Memorial Scholar

• Second Year Scholar, Mechanical Engineering
• Kieran's research explores the development of novel soft hemispherical robots, including characterization of sensing ability, and how these can be used as low-cost grippers with a sense of touch.

Endowment Scholar 

• Second Year Scholar, Computer Science
• Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptographic technique that lets users show statements like "I have a valid social security number" without revealing any private data, and Sasha’s research focuses on making zero-knowledge proofs faster and more capable.

Marilynn and Willard Sweetser Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Biochemistry
• Holly's research uses computational techniques to study the conformational cycle and dynamics of the molecular chaperone Heat Shock Protein 90.

Simpson-Rhoads Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Aerospace Engineering
• Sarah uses machine learning to develop simpler models of spacecraft motion in the region between the Earth and Moon, where scientific and technological activity is rapidly growing.

Sparrell Family Undergraduate Scholar

• Undergraduate Scholar, Chemical Engineering and Animal Science
• Melisa uses machine learning to study how proteins change structure when binding to other molecules.

Forster Family Foundation Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Materials Science and Engineering
• By using a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) to see individual atoms, Hayden’s research maps out tiny defects within superconductor-insulator-superconductor junctions to ensure these ultra-fast switches work reliably for next-generation quantum computers and advanced space sensors.

MWC Chapter Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Physics
• Hayden is studying GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo detector simulation for high-energy physics.

Paula McNichols Memorial Scholar

• First Year Scholar, Chemical Engineering
• Mohan's research explores how metal cations exchanged into zeolites become solvated as molecules replace metal-framework bonds to form metal–ligand complexes that bridge homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, and how these species drive industrially relevant reactions.

Smith Family Undergraduate Scholar

• Undergraduate Scholar, Aerospace Engineering
• Troy's research involves developing a water tunnel test rig with a four-axis gantry and integrated sensor/motor control systems to study bio-inspired propulsion.