ChE Sophomore Peter Howard Nominated for 2019 Goldwater Scholarship

Photo of Peter HowardLSU has nominated four students for the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Katie Davis, Jack Green, Peter Howard and Syed “Akbar” Zamin will compete with students from universities across the country to be named 2019 Goldwater Scholars. Students must be selected through an internal competition at LSU in order to compete for the scholarship. 

“These outstanding LSU undergraduates are exactly what the Goldwater Scholarship was designed for: producing the best researchers in critical fields,” said LSU Ogden Honors College Dean Jonathan Earle. “It’s a testament to the great work our students are producing in our campus’s labs and classrooms."

Goldwater Scholars are awarded one- and two-year $7,500 stipends to pursue undergraduate research in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. To apply for the scholarship, students must submit a research essay that demonstrates their interest and ability in these fields. Goldwater Scholarships are widely considered one of the most prestigious undergraduate awards available to students of the STEM disciplines.

Peter Howard of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a sophomore Stamps Scholar studying Chemical Engineering in the LSU College of Engineering. Under the director of Dr. Bhuvnesh Bharti, Peter’s research focuses on the fabrication of micron-scale ellipsoidal particles to understand how these particles assemble spontaneously and develop a quantitative model to predict that behavior using kinetic and statistical analysis. After graduation, Howard intends to pursue a PhD in Chemical Engineering.

“Ever since coming in as a freshman I have loved this campus community and all its moving parts: from cutting-edge research, challenging coursework, and pulse-pounding LSU Tiger football,” Howard said. “On top of the benefits an engineering degree provides me, I have been able to take part in a research project focused on the synthesis and self-assembly of polystyrene particles under the guidance of Dr. Bhuvnesh Bharti. Through the Ogden Honors College I was able to connect with Dr. Bharti before my first semester as a part of the President’s Future Leaders in Research program. My work on this project has helped me to learn about the intricacies and limitation of colloidal research, and it has allowed me to develop my laboratory techniques in preparation for the pursuit of my PhD in the field.”

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation

Congress established the Barry Goldwater Scholarship in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate. The scholarship was designed to alleviate a critical, current and future shortage of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Ogden Honors College Office of Fellowship Advising

The Ogden Honors College Office of Fellowship Advising advises current students and recent graduates from all colleges at LSU as they apply for prestigious national and international fellowships. Students interested in applying for the Goldwater Scholarship may contact Drew Lamonica Arms, director of the Office of Fellowship Advising, at fellowships@lsu.edu.

LSU College of Engineering

Founded in 1908, the LSU College of Engineering offers 11 undergraduate degree programs and confers approximately 650 bachelor’s degrees per year, ranking it in the top 10 percent nationally for graduates. Faculty members engage in education, research, and commercialization with a strategic focus on research indigenous to Louisiana: energy, manufacturing, natural & built infrastructure, computation and biotechnology. For more information about LSU's College of Engineering visit lsu.edu/eng