WVU Students Win National Research Scholarships

Four West Virginia undergraduate students have been awarded a national scholarship to support science research.  

The West Virginia University students have each won a Goldwater Scholarship, a national award that supports undergraduate students with strong commitments to research careers in mathematics, engineering and natural sciences.  

The winners are: 

• Caden Ginter, a junior seeking a physics and computer science dual major. For the last three years, Ginter has explored how advanced computational methods can accelerate the discovery of new materials with desirable properties. 

• Mason Powell, a sophomore earth and environmental science major. Through his work he aims to understand how forest ecosystems respond to environmental change, such as how human impacts and biological stress can alter how much carbon a forest stores. 

• Cloe Ratliff, a junior dual major in biology and psychology. Ratliff is passionate about improving health outcomes in rural areas through research and medicine. 

• Camndon Reed, a junior robotics and computer engineering dual major. Reed is committed to building autonomous systems that can operate in the real world, not just in controlled environments. 

Each will receive $7,500 annually for up to two years of undergraduate study to further their research.  

The WVU students are just four of the 454 scholars chosen from a pool of some 5,000 applicants this year.  

Founded in 1984, the Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency that has awarded a total of 11,616 scholarships since 1989. The award honors the late U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona, and his lifetime interest in technology and the sciences.