Texas A&M University junior chemistry major Oscar Gonzalez ‘20 has been named a 2019 Goldwater Scholar by the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and research potential.
Gonzalez and Texas A&M biochemistry and genetics double major Alison Vicary ’20 earned selection by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, the nation’s most prestigious award for undergraduates who intend to pursue research careers in mathematics, natural sciences or engineering. Each award provides up to $7,500 per year to help students cover costs associated with tuition, fees, books, and room and board.
Gonzalez and Vicary are among 496 recipients – including 25 from the state of Texas — selected this year from an estimated pool of more than 5,000 applicants across the country. A total of 48 Texas A&M students have achieved the coveted honor since the program issued its first award in 1989, including 16 from the College of Science. To date, the Goldwater Scholarship Foundation has bestowed more than $40 million in scholarships.
Gonzalez, a San Juan, Texas, native and Science Leadership Scholar with double minors in physics and mathematics, previously earned Goldwater Honorable Mention honors as a sophomore in 2018. Since fall 2017, he has been a member of Texas A&M chemist Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee’s laboratory, where he currently is working on two projects to develop materials designed to improve computing efficiency. He has focused on stabilizing metastable polymorphs based on interfacing vanadium and hafnium oxides with a view toward stabilizing negative thermal coefficient materials. Gonzalez also has participated in summer research programs at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology and the University of California, Berkeley.
“Working on these projects has helped me become the scientist I want to become,” Gonzalez said. “In addition, I want to share and use everything I have learned with the rest of the world.”
In that spirit of sharing scientific discovery, Gonzalez works to facilitate research opportunities for his fellow Texas A&M students as an Undergraduate Research Ambassador. He also is a Regents’ Scholar, a member of The Academy of Undergraduate Researchers Across Texas (AURA Texas) and a peer mentor within the Century Scholars Learning Community. After graduation, Gonzalez plans to graduate school, where he will continue to pursue his research interests.
“Oscar is a true scholar and is poised to make important contributions to the physical sciences,” Banerjee said. “He is undoubtedly a remarkable talent, and his trajectory suggests that he will have an exceptional career upon graduation from Texas A&M.”
Gonzalez and Vicary were nominated by a faculty-staff committee organized by LAUNCH: National Fellowships at Texas A&M University. To read more about how LAUNCH helps prepare outstanding students to compete for nationally competitive awards such as the Goldwater Scholarship with the generous support of the Association of Former Students, visit http://natlfellows.tamu.edu.
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About Research at Texas A&M University: As one of the world’s leading research institutions, Texas A&M is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery, including that of science and technology. Research conducted at Texas A&M represented annual expenditures of more than $922 million in fiscal year 2018. Texas A&M ranked in the top 20 of the National Science Foundation’s Higher Education Research and Development survey (2017), based on expenditures of more than $905.4 million in fiscal year 2017. Texas A&M’s research creates new knowledge that provides basic, fundamental and applied contributions resulting, in many cases, in economic benefits to the state, nation and world. To learn more, visit http://research.tamu.edu/.
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Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@science.tamu.edu or Oscar J. Gonzalez, (979) 458-2816 or oscargon1234@tamu.edu
