MIT college students Ben Lou, Srinath Mahankali, and Kenta Suzuki have been chosen to obtain Barry Goldwater Scholarships for the 2024-25 tutorial 12 months. They’re amongst simply 438 recipients from throughout the nation chosen primarily based on tutorial benefit from an estimated pool of greater than 5,000 school sophomores and juniors, roughly 1,350 of whom have been nominated by their tutorial establishment to compete for the scholarship.
Since 1989, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Schooling Basis has awarded almost 11,000 Goldwater scholarships to assist undergraduates who intend to pursue analysis careers within the pure sciences, arithmetic, and engineering and have the potential to turn into leaders of their respective fields. Previous students have gone on to win a formidable array of prestigious postgraduate fellowships. Nearly all, together with the three MIT recipients, intend to acquire doctorates of their space of analysis.
Ben Lou
Ben Lou is a third-year pupil initially from San Diego, California, majoring in physics and math with a minor in philosophy.
“My analysis pursuits are scattered throughout totally different disciplines,” says Lou. “I need to draw from a variety of subjects in math and physics, discovering novel connections between them, to push ahead the frontier of information.”
Since January 2022, he has labored with Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the College of Science, and Hudson Loughlin, a graduate pupil within the LIGO group, which research the detection of gravitational waves. Lou is working with them to advance the sector of quantum measurement and higher perceive quantum gravity.
“Ben has huge mental horsepower and works with outstanding independence,” writes Mavalvala in her suggestion letter. “I’ve little question he has an excellent profession in physics forward of him.”
Lou, for his half, is grateful to Mavalvala and Loughlin, in addition to all of his scientific mentors which have supported him alongside his analysis path. That features MIT professors Alan Guth and Barton Zwiebach, who launched him to quantum physics, in addition to his first-year advisor, Richard Worth; present advisor, Janet Conrad; Elijah Bodish and Roman Bezrukavnikov within the Division of Arithmetic; and David W. Brown of the San Diego Math Circle.
When it comes to his future profession targets, Lou desires to be a professor of theoretical physics and examine, as he says, the “elementary elements of actuality” whereas additionally inspiring college students to like math and physics.
Along with his analysis, Lou is presently the vice chairman of the Assistive Know-how Membership at MIT and actively engaged in elevating cash for Spinal Muscular Atrophy analysis. Sooner or later, he’d wish to proceed his philanthropy work and use his private expertise to advise an assistive expertise firm.
Srinath Mahankali
Srinath Mahankali is a third-year pupil from New York Metropolis majoring in pc science.
Since June 2022, Mahankali has been an undergraduate researcher within the MIT Laptop Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory. Working with Pulkit Agrawal, assistant professor {of electrical} engineering and pc science and head of the Unbelievable AI Lab, Mahankali’s analysis is on coaching robots. At present, his focus is on coaching quadruped robots to maneuver in an energy-efficient method and coaching brokers to work together in environments with minimal suggestions. However sooner or later, he’d wish to develop robots that may full athletic duties like gymnastics.
“The expertise of discussing analysis with Srinath is just like discussions with the most effective PhD college students in my group,” writes Agrawal in his suggestion letter. “He’s fearless, prepared to take dangers, persistent, inventive, and will get issues executed.”
Earlier than coming to MIT, Mahankali was a 2021 Regeneron STS scholar, which is likely one of the oldest and most prestigious awards for math and science college students. In 2020, he was additionally a participant within the MIT PRIMES program, learning goal capabilities in optimization issues with Yunan Yang, an assistant professor of math at Cornell College.
“I’m deeply grateful to all my analysis advisors for his or her invaluable mentorship and steerage,” says Mahankali, extending his due to PhD college students Zhang-Wei Hong and Gabe Margolis, in addition to assistant professor of math at Brandeis, Promit Ghosal, and the entire organizers of the PRIMES program. “I’m additionally very grateful to all of the members of the Unbelievable AI Lab for his or her assist, encouragement, and willingness to assist and focus on any questions I’ve,”
Sooner or later, Mahankali desires to acquire a PhD and at some point lead his personal lab in robotics and synthetic intelligence.
Kenta Suzuki
Kenta Suzuki is a third-year pupil majoring in arithmetic from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and Tokyo, Japan.
At present, Suzuki works with professor of arithmetic Roman Bezrukavnikov on analysis on the intersection of quantity and illustration concept, utilizing geometric strategies to signify p-adic teams. Suzuki has additionally beforehand labored with math professors Wei Zhang and Zhiwei Yun, crediting the latter with inspiring him to pursue analysis in illustration concept.
In his suggestion letter, Yun writes, “Kenta is the most effective undergraduate pupil that I’ve labored with by way of the mixture of uncooked expertise, mathematical maturity, and analysis skills.”
Earlier than coming to MIT, Suzuki was a Yau Science Award USA finalist in 2020, receiving a gold in math, and he obtained honorable point out from the Davidson Institute Fellows program in 2021. He additionally participated within the MIT PRIMES program in 2020. Suzuki credit his PRIMES mentor, Michael Zieve on the College of Michigan, with giving him his first style of mathematical analysis. As well as, he prolonged his due to all of his math mentors, together with the organizers of MIT Summer time Program in Undergraduate Analysis.
After MIT, Suzuki intends to acquire a PhD in pure math, persevering with his analysis in illustration concept and quantity concept and, at some point, educating at a research-oriented establishment.
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Schooling Program was established by U.S. Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater, a soldier and nationwide chief who served the nation for 56 years. Awardees obtain scholarships of as much as $7,500 a 12 months to cowl prices associated to tuition, room and board, charges, and books.
