Erin Coleman '25 has spent the past two summers conducting research at UC Davis and Caltech.
Gustie Erin Coleman ’25 has landed two highly competitive academic awards that will help her continue her plans to eventually pursue a PhD in astrophysics.
The Physics and Mathematics and Computer Science double major earned a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in March, the seventh Gustie to earn this scholarship in the past six years. The award was established by the United States Congress in 1986 and is given to exceptional sophomores and juniors who plan to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering.
A short time after learning of the Goldwater award, Coleman became one of 11 students at Lutheran colleges in the U.S. to win a Rossing Physics Scholarship, the second time she’s earned that honor. It is bestowed by the Thomas D. Rossing Fund for Physics Education, which created the awards in partnership with the Foundation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Dr. Rossing was an accomplished physics scholar who wanted to support academically exceptional physics majors.
Coleman said both scholarships will help her pay for her final year at Gustavus, and they’re especially timely given that her younger sister is about to start her own college journey. “It will be tough for my parents to help pay tuition for both of us, so this was very welcome news,” she said.
Coleman has been building her research skills since she arrived on the Hill. It started with a First-Year Research Experience (FYRE) with the Physics Department’s Darsa Donelan. Then, in summer 2023, Coleman earned a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF REU) at UC Davis to conduct research in which she made novel discoveries, based on mathematical modeling, of a galaxy’s gas flow. She’s now spending summer 2024 conducting research on gravitational waves at Caltech. “I’ve been super interested in space since I was little, and the FYRE work really cemented my interest in research,” said Coleman, who also finds time to play in the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra and the Women’s Nordic Ski Club, among other co-curricular activities. “FYRE gives our students a really unusual opportunity to do research at a high level, and I think it definitely made my applications for subsequent summer research opportunities a lot more competitive.”
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