MTU Junior Kaylee Meyers Awarded Goldwater Scholarship
For the second consecutive calendar year, a Michigan Tech university student has been awarded one particular of the
nation’s most prestigious undergraduate investigate scholarships.
Kaylee Meyers, a third-calendar year university student at Michigan Technological University, has acquired
one particular of the nation’s greatest accolades for school undergraduates. The biomedical engineering important from Essexville, Michigan is the twelfth Michigan Tech university student to receive the
prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
Set up in 1989 by Congress to honor the late Arizona senator and administered
by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Training Basis, Goldwater scholarships are awarded to school sophomores and juniors. The awards
are primarily based on academic advantage, investigate expertise and intent to go after a profession in
science, engineering or mathematics.
As component of the range approach, schools nominate up to four pupils who intend
to go after a profession in investigate and have at the very least a 3. GPA. As one particular of 396 recipients
selected from about five,000 nominees, Meyers will receive a monetary award
to be used on expenditures like tuition, textbooks, and area and board for her senior calendar year.
Assisting to Mend
Meyers created a “passion for engineering” when included with Initially Robotics in
high school. “But I also actually needed to get the job done in the healthcare industry, so biomedical
engineering was the fantastic mix of the two,” she explained.
Meyers’ investigate focuses on engineered biomaterials. “More especially, injectable
biomaterials that could be used to speed up wound healing in wounded tendons,” she
explained.
“Kaylee’s get the job done has led to novel facts about how injectable biomaterials can be
used to command mobile and molecular mechanisms included in tendon repair service,” explained Meyer’s
investigate advisor, Rupak Rajachar, a principal lecturer in biomedical engineering at
Michigan Tech. “These conclusions are the basis for one particular of two to start with-author manuscripts
she is at present composing.”
Meyers’ second manuscript consists of the outcomes of her inventive initiatives to help build
a table-top ultrasound method for use in specific drug supply from biomaterials.
Meyers’ and Rajachar’s investigate was recently awarded a second grant from the Nationwide
Institutes of Health and fitness (NIH) to get the job done on incorporating targeted ultrasound into the investigate
by a collaborative project with Michigan Tech alumnus Eli Vlaisavljevich, a earlier
Goldwater Scholarship receiver, member of the Engineered Biomaterials Lab neighborhood
and current school at Virginia Tech.
In addition to the NIH grant and Goldwater Scholarship, Meyers’ investigate has acquired
assistance from the Portage Health and fitness Basis and the Charles Steger International Internship
Award from the Focused Ultrasound Basis. She explained these types of funding for undergraduate
investigate is very important.
“I think outdoors funding is critical for the undergraduate investigate we do in the
lab, as it allows us to get the job done on fixing actually appealing engineering complications,”
she explained.
An Early Start
Meyers’ Michigan Tech journey commenced at the University’s Summer months Youth Plan (SYP).
When she to start with set foot on campus in 2016, she could not foresee the route she would
get, but she understood from the get started she was at a special spot.
“The summer season soon after my junior calendar year of high school, I attended MTU’s Girls in Engineering
Plan,” Meyers explained. “I figured out a ton about engineering and experienced a opportunity to check out
the campus and surrounding spot.”
A self-explained “avid outdoorswoman” who loves to hike, bike, ski, trail run and
kayak, she understood that Tech’s lecturers and location would be a excellent in shape. A couple months
later on, she found that the “good fit” prolonged to the classroom and lab as very well.
“As a senior, I attended MTU Preview Working day, exactly where I fulfilled my investigate advisor, Dr. Rajachar,
and his Engineered Biomaterials Lab group,” she explained. “Through them, I figured out about
the shut campus neighborhood and what undergraduate investigate was like at Tech. It bolstered
my final decision to occur right here.”
Continuing a Happy Tradition
Meyers is Michigan Tech’s fourth Goldwater Scholarship receiver in the earlier five
many years and the second consecutive MTU university student to be so honored. Third-calendar year organic
sciences important Tessa Steenwinkel gained the scholarship final calendar year.
Meyer’s prolonged-time period goals are to make her PhD in biomedical engineering and ultimately
run a investigate lab of her possess as a principal investigator and college professor.
“I think Tech is very excellent at promoting students from all backgrounds in STEM fields,
particularly by youth outreach and our supportive campus neighborhood.”
Rajachar explained it is fascinating to see the potential broader influence Meyers can have both equally
as a graduate university student and foreseeable future mentor to the up coming era of pupils in STEM
fields.
“She recognizes that the finest reward any scientific mentor can supply is their
time and an natural environment that empowers young pupils to think in tricky get the job done and their
possess capacity to fix complications,” he explained.
Meyers is in extraordinary corporation as the fifth Michigan Tech biomedical engineering
important to receive a Goldwater Scholarship, a lot more than any other discipline at the University,
and the third to be mentored by Rajachar.
Vlaisavljevich, who gained the scholarship in 2009, is an assistant professor of biomedical
engineering at Virginia Tech and has established a laboratory producing therapeutic
ultrasound tools. 2012 scholarship receiver Hal Holmes is a guide engineer at Conservation
X Labs, producing cutting-edge genetic testing engineering for conservation.
Rajachar is self-assured Meyers will stay up to the high standard set by her predecessors.
“I definitely think that Kaylee can fulfill or exceed the success of any past university student
from my lab,” he explained. “I spotlight their achievements hence significantly as scientists not
only to express the significance of the Goldwater and the power of my belief in
Kaylee, but a lot more importantly to realize that each of them also serves as a mentor
to Kaylee, serving to her as she performs diligently towards meeting what I think is her
terrific assure as a scientist and engineer.”
When the time comes for Meyers to mentor pupils of her possess, she’ll reflect on her
individual role design. “I want to thank my investigate advisor, Dr. Rajachar, for furnishing
me and many other pupils the option to get included in undergraduate investigate
in an encouraging and intellectually stimulating natural environment,” she explained. “I am very
lucky to have him as a mentor.”
Michigan Technological University is a community investigate college, home to a lot more than
seven,000 pupils from fifty four countries. Established in 1885, the University offers a lot more than
120 undergraduate and graduate degree systems in science and engineering, engineering,
forestry, business and economics, health and fitness professions, humanities, mathematics, and
social sciences. Our campus in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway
and is just a couple miles from Lake Superior.
