2017-18 MWC Scholars

2017-18 Metropolitan Washington Chapter Scholars

ARCS Foundation Metropolitan Washington is honored to present awards to these outstanding scholars chosen by the scholar selection committees at our five universities for the 2017 - 2018 academic year. Our partner universities are Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, The George Washington University, University of Maryland, and University of Virginia. Our graduate scholars receive $15,000 a year. Our undergraduate scholars receive $5,000 dollars a year.

Georgetown University Scholars

Graduate Scholars, $15,000 Award

Evan Gardner

Gladi Mathews Memorial Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry
Research in sustainable chemistry and alternative energy by developing novel catalytic systems for the sustainable production of ammonia from abundant dinitrogen, as well as electrocatalytic ammonia oxidation systems for efficient fuel cells in energy applications.

Marina Solomos

ARCS MWC Scholar

3rd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry
Research in solid state materials utilizing template-directed crystallization to selectively grow polymorphs of organic compounds and to elucidate the interfacial template/crystal interactions that control crystal growth, with applications in pharmaceutical development.

Johns Hopkins University Scholars

Graduate Scholars, $15,000 Award

Macauley Breault

Paul Wright Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering
Research to develop a neuroengineering mathematical model of the complex spinal-brain neural pain pathways with applications for targeted neurostimulation and/or drug therapy.

Wesley Furman

ARCS MWC Scholar

3rd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Physics
Research in novel quantum phenomena and materials that combines experimental techniques such as neutron scattering with theoretical methods to unveil the underlying structure responsible for surface quantum states in order to discover and control their unique properties.

John Hickey

JCM Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering
Research in biomedical engineering with three goals: (1) to create magnetic nanoparticles that act like artificial immune cells, which when used in magnetic fields first behave like rare cancer-specific immune cells for diagnosis and secondly when activated for therapeutic purposes specifically destroy the cancer cells; (2) to optimize the size, shape, and chemistry of these artificial cells so that they can be injected safely and effectively into patients; and (3) to engineer hydrogel immune activation centers in body—like artificial lymph nodes, which will be utilized to train/enhance the body’s own immune cells to detect and destroy cancer cells.

The George Washington University Scholars

Graduate Scholars, $15,000 Award

Nicholas Gorgone

ARCS MWC Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Physics
Research in astrophysics utilizing NASA's Swift X-Ray multi-wavelength gamma-ray burst observatory to detect, map, categorize, and catalog new and revisited gamma-ray burst sources, including detailed multiwavelength analysis. Swift is a first-of-its-kind observatory dedicated to the study of gamma-ray science.

Jenna Osborne

Mars Foundation Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Research utilizing microbubbles and nanodroplets in ultrasound applications, such as cancer imaging, targeted drug delivery and improved stem cell growth in tissue engineering, and bone/cartilage regeneration.

Claire Silverstein

KPMG Scholar

2nd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research using various computer programming languages to develop microscopic traffic models to investigate the impacts of intelligent transportation systems' technology on the safety and stability of acceleration and lane changing behavior of drivers on roadways.

University of Maryland Scholars

Graduate Scholars, $15,000 Award

Zachary Eldridge

ARCS MWC Endowment Scholar

1st Year Scholar ARCS
Ph.D. Candidate in Physics
Research at the Joint Center for Quantum Information & Computer Science involving theoretical research working at the interface of quantum optics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum information science.

Danny Kim

Lockheed Martin Scholar

3rd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Electrical & Computer Engineering
Research in cyber security, computer security and program analysis to discover new fundamental behaviors of malware in order to better detect malicious programs and prevent them before they cause damage.

Elaine Petro

Lockheed Martin Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Aerospace Engineering
Research in theoretical modeling and design of a water propelled helicon plasma thruster for high specific impulse propulsion applications such as low-cost station-keeping and deep space exploration missions.

Clare Sengupta

McNichols Foundation Scholar

3rd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Neuroscience
Research examining the mechanisms of synaptic loss and recovery in the aging visual system, as well as development of novel tools that allows experimental tracking of functionally active synapses.

Undergraduate Scholars, $5,000 Award

Haley Patel

Lockheed Martin Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering
Non-equilibrium plasma treatment using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) produces oxidizing species, which have strong anti-pathogen properties and provide fast and effective disinfection. A known single-jet DBD device with quartz tubing was used to effectively sterilize surfaces contaminated with E. coli.

Madeline Caracappa

Lockheed Martin Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering
Research in the Maryland Space Grant Consortium Weather Balloon Payload Project to construct a test set-up that gathers readings from a number of sensors while the weather balloon is in flight. The sensors measure a collection of state variables like temperature and pressure along with some other information like concentration of certain gases in the atmosphere. We aim to analyze and present the data to non-aerospace audiences while also rounding out our view of the atmosphere during ascent and descent of the weather balloon.

Sarah Kerr

Aerospace Corporation Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Undergraduate in Physics
Research in biophysics, using advanced microscopy techniques to study and quantify interactions between cytoskeletal components during immunological synapse formation in activated T cells.

University of Virginia Scholars

Graduate Scholars, $15,000 Award

Jennifer Hays

ARCS MWC Endowment Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Biophysics
Research utilizing combined experimental and computational approaches for probing the conformational equilibria in flexible recognition in protein binding of adhesins by utilizing molecular dynamics simulations, electron paramagnetic resonance and double electron electron resonance, and then to utilize the validated model to identify the conformational states and specific interactions that contribute to adhesion binding.

Caryn Palatchi

ARCS MWC Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Physics
Research aims to develop an ultra-precise RTP crystal Pockels Cell, a key laser technology in the polarized electron source for the Jefferson Laboratory electron accelerator facility, which will provide unprecedented precision in the measurement of the weak charge of the electron and the electroweak mixing angle.

Lauren Russell

Danaher Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
Research uses tissue engineering and biomaterials approaches with the junction of neuroscience and stem cell biology to investigate the affect(s) on biomaterial properties, such as the stiffness and topography, have on the regeneration of glial cells in the brain.

John Wadden

Forster Scholar

3rd Year Scholar
Ph.D. Candidate in Engineering & Computer Science
Research that investigates the design of new, heterogeneous computer architectures with accelerators to enable order-of-magnitude performance, and power improvements; and new programming models that allow easy portability of existing software to diverse new heterogeneous architectures.

Undergraduate Scholars, $5000 Award

Perrin Falkner

Clark Construction Scholar

1st Year Scholar
Undergraduate in Civil & Environmental Engineering
Research in earthquake-resilient design, with a specific focus on the community of Gyumri, Armenia and use of volcanic tuff stone in new mixtures of strong, light-weight concrete, for reconstruction of residential structures.