May 1, 2019
Two UW students honored by Goldwater Foundation
The Goldwater Foundation honored two University of Washington students this year. Selected from 1,223 nominees from across the country, undergraduates Chris Moore and Irika Sinha were named Goldwater Scholars.
Goldwater Scholarships are granted to sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise and plan to pursue research careers in math, engineering or the natural sciences. These scholarships award up to $7,500 a year to help cover costs associated with tuition, mandatory fees, books, room and board. For the 2019-20 academic year, 496 students nationwide were selected for the competitive scholarship.
“I’m grateful that our students were guided by mentors, teachers, and peers, and am inspired to see the ways they benefitted from learning inside and beyond the classroom,” says Undergraduate Academic Affairs Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor. “Their experiences at the UW have supported their growth and development, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Chris Moore, junior
When he was 18 years old, Bellevue-based Chris Moore looked to the Navy SEALS as a way to learn a great deal in a short amount of time. He persevered and maintained his drive for learning through training, two deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and as SEAL instructor. The last three of his nine years in the military were spent mentoring hundreds of SEAL candidates in mountaineering, climbing and survival in Kodiak, Alaska. The experience of instructing instilled a passion for education and fundamental understanding that drove him to ultimately pursue the new challenge of scientific research.
Now a UW undergraduate, Moore is pursuing two majors: a comprehensive track in physics and a data science track in astronomy. He began research in Professor Kai-Mei Fu’s Optical Spintronics and Sensing Lab at the end of his first quarter. Moore researches the orientation and creation of diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers as scalable building blocks for promising new technologies such as fundamentally secure communication, quantum computing, and quantum sensing. His academic pursuits are motivated by the knowledge that his research will advance multiple scientific fields. He is learning about all facets of physics and astronomy and hopes to become a universal subject matter expert capable of finding optimal research paths and outreach opportunities in the physical sciences.
His academic pursuits are motivated by the knowledge that his research will advance multiple scientific fields. He is learning about all facets of physics and astronomy and hopes to become a universal subject matter expert capable of finding optimal research paths and outreach opportunities in the physical sciences.
Prior to receiving the Goldwater Scholarship, Moore was twice selected for funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF), received two Mary Gates Research Scholarships, medals for his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as a Purple Heart. This summer, Moore will venture east to MIT where he will conduct NSF-funded research at the Materials Research Lab.
Moore has deepened his leadership skills through his military service and on campus. As the president of the Society of Physics Students at the University of Washington, Moore started semi-monthly graduate research presentations in order to show undergraduates the research opportunities available in the physics department.
Irika Sinha, sophomore
Originally from Redmond, WA, Irika Sinha is majoring in biochemistry and biology. Through the Honors Program, she is pursuing the interdisciplinary honors designation and planning to complete college honors requirements for her biochemistry major. Her UW academic awards include a Mary Gates Research Scholarship, being named to the 2017-18 Annual Dean’s List, and receiving the Honors General Chemistry Achievement Award.
Sinha is motivated to develop her skills as a researcher to work on a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, which she has witnessed up close in her grandmother. To that end, she began working in labs while still in high school and continued at the UW, where she started research the summer before her freshman year. Currently, she is an undergraduate researcher in Dr. David Ginger’s lab where she works on perovskite solar cells and is “contributing to the efforts to alleviate the disastrous effects of climate change by focusing on clean energy.”
In addition to academic and lab-based skills, Sinha brings a range of leadership experiences to the classroom and lab as well. At the UW, she is active in the Women in Chemical Sciences at UW organization. In high school, she was a student representative on her school district’s instructional materials committee, held leadership positions in her high school’s National Honor Society and Amnesty International Club. She has also taught STEM topics to elementary-age girls and teaches taekwondo — in which she holds a provisional black belt — to children and adults.
About the Goldwater Foundation
The Goldwater Foundation’s scholarship program honors Senator Barry Goldwater and encourages outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
Learn more about scholarship opportunities at UW
The Goldwater Scholarship application process is supported by the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards (OMSFA), a UAA program. OMSFA works with faculty, staff and students to identify and support promising students in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for this and other prestigious awards.