Three UA Students Receive Goldwater Scholarships

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For the third year in a row, three students from The University of Alabama were named Goldwater Scholars, receiving one of the country’s most elite academic scholarships.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence Foundation selected Kurt Barry, Rebecca Long and Ynhi Thai among 278 students nationwide to receive scholarships that will cover the costs of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7,500 per year.

The Goldwater Foundation Scholarship Program was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering and is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

Background on the three UA scholars includes:

Goldwater Scholar – Kurt M. Barry

Barry, a junior physics major and a double minor in computer-based honors and mathematics, was nominated by Dr. Andreas Piepke, associate professor of physics and astronomy.  Barry works under the guidance of Piepke in his studies of neutrinos as part of the Enriched Xenon Observatory collaboration.  Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are not yet well understood, and Barry’s work earned him the commendation of the Goldwater Scholarship.

As part of the Research Internships in Science and Engineering program, the College of Arts and Sciences student worked with a German doctoral student at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, for the summer and successfully created a program written in C++ to perform online monitoring of a subdetector.

In addition to his studies of neutrinos, Barry also spent a semester, under the direction of Dr. Martin Bakker, associate professor of chemistry, writing code to analyze grazing incidence small angle X-ray diffraction patterns from block-copolymers.

Aside from his studies, Barry serves as a lab assistant for introductory physics courses.  He has been honored with the 2009 Kenneth J. Tobola Award for his outstanding project in the computer-based honors program and was named the Outstanding Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Student in 2008.

After graduation, Barry plans on earning his doctorate in theoretical physics and performing research and teaching at the university level.

Barry is the son of Carson and Deborah Barry of Romney, W.Va.

Goldwater Scholar – Rebecca Anne Truly Long

Long, a junior chemistry major and a double-minor in computer-based honors and mathematics, was nominated by Dr. David Dixon, Robert Ramsay Chair of Chemistry, and has worked under his direction performing computational chemistry research.  Long’s goal is to use computational chemistry to help develop catalysts for energy production and utilization.

In addition, Long was also the recipient of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship which will allow her to perform laboratory and field experiments to determine ozonesonde accuracy at the Earth Systems Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. this summer.

Long is a member of Gamma Sigma Epsilon, Alpha Lambda Delta, Sigma Alpha Lambda, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Eta Sigma and Golden Key International honoraries.  The College of Arts and Sciences student is also the recipient of the Blount Presidential Scholarship and the Outstanding Chemistry Undergraduate Student Award.

After graduation, Long plans on earning her doctorate in theoretical chemistry and becoming a professor at a research university.

Long is the daughter of Randy and Karen Long of Vestavia Hills. She is a graduate of Vestavia Hills High School.

Goldwater Scholar – Ynhi T. Thai

Thai, a senior chemical engineering major and chemistry minor, was nominated by Dr. Chris Brazel, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering.  Thai currently works as an undergraduate assistant to Brazel and focuses her research upon the heating studies of magnetic nanoparticles inside of hydrogels for hyperthermia therapy, a promising type of cancer treatment.

Thai is also the recipient of the William Orr Dingwall Foundation Asian Ancestry Grant and the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship.  As a Hollings Scholar, Thai interned at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory-Ocean Chemistry Division in Miami, Fla. where she studied the natural and anthropogenic sources of nutrients to help obtain the long-term data needed to address the key issues of coastal-marine management issues.

Thai is a member of Phi Eta Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, Alpha Lambda Delta and XXXI Women honoraries.  She serves as associate editor of the Journal of Science and Health at The University of Alabama and is active in Engineers Without Borders and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

After graduation, Thai plans on attending medical school and developing novel materials for disease diagnosis and treatment.

Thai is the daughter of Duong Thai and Lieu Lam of Long Beach, Miss.