Two Juniors Win National Science Award

Junior Tyler L. Perfitt’s road to a Goldwater Scholarship wasn’t a direct route. The prestigious award is difficult to come by, even more so if you don’t think you want one, and flat-out impossible to win if you don’t know it exists.

Perfitt hadn’t even heard of the Goldwater until last year, when Catherine “Catie” M. Baker ’12, a fellow member of DePauw’s swimming and diving team, received one for her work in computer science. At the time, Perfitt, a biology and Spanish double major, wasn’t sure that a career in research was for him, but a summer internship researching brain cancer cells changed all that.

“It opened me up to the opportunities of neuroscience and what research was really like,” Perfitt says.

Perfitt returned to DePauw last fall with a new take on his future. He began an application for a Goldwater Scholarship, drawing on personal experience to make the case that he was a serious candidate for the award.

“My great-aunt suffered through Alzheimer’s disease until her death during my freshman year,” Perfitt, left, says. “Because of that, I already had a strong understanding of the disease and how it is currently being treated by delaying the onset of symptoms so that death occurs before dementia sets in.

“While the external symptoms of Alzheimer’s do not appear until later in life, cortical thinning of the brain occurs as early as age 30 for at-risk individuals. I decided that my proposed research should focus on observing changes in these at-risk individuals using MRI scanning, followed by postmortem tissue sampling and studying to pinpoint markers that could reveal when and where the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease begin.”

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman. The purpose of the foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields.

This spring, the Goldwater program awarded 282 scholarships for the 2012-13 academic year – which will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year – to college sophomores and juniors from the United States.

Read details here.