Gustavus Adolphus College junior physics major James Trevathan is the recipient of a 2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, the premier undergraduate award for students pursuing careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. Trevathan, an Apple Valley native, is the 19th Gustavus student since 1992 to receive a Goldwater Scholarship.
“The entire physics department is very pleased to learn that James received a prestigious Goldwater award,” Professor of Physics Paul Saulnier said. “Interacting with accomplished students, who are also fine people, is one of the great joys of working at Gustavus. Our students make us proud and James certainly continues this tradition.”
In his three years at Gustavus, Trevathan has taken advantage of numerous student-faculty research opportunities, interned at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and earned a scholarship from the Minnesota High Tech Association.
Trevathan spent the summer after his freshman year conducting research in Professor Tom Huber’s acoustics lab. That research involved the vibration of cantilevers with the use of a laser vibrometer. He has also worked alongside Saulnier, studying the intensity distribution of laser speckle produced by the spatially coherent waves passing through diffuse media.
In the summer of 2012 Trevathan secured a prestigious internship at the Mayo Clinic’s CT Clinical Innovations Center under the direction of Dr. Cynthia H. McCollough. Trevathan worked on a couple of projects during the course of the internship including one involving the development of a technique to differentiate between two different types of kidney stones.
After he graduates from Gustavus in the spring of 2014, Trevathan is planning to apply for a seven-year graduate school program at Mayo that would allow him to earn both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.
“It is an honor to receive as prestigious an award as the Goldwater Scholarship, and it would not have been possible without the support of the Gustavus Physics Department and other faculty,” Trevathan said.
Trevathan is one of 271 undergraduates to receive a 2013 Goldwater Scholarship, which covers the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year for two years. Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,107 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by faculty members of colleges and universities nationwide.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was authorized by the United States Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. The scholarship program aims to alleviate a critical current and future shortage of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers and to provide a continuing source of highly qualified individuals to those fields of academic study and research.
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