Arvind Muruganantham
Goldwater Scholar
The Award
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship is the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering in America. The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in STEM.
At Baylor
At the time he was awarded the Goldwater, Arvind was a junior Cell & Molecular Biology major on the pre-medical track. He was the Vice President of the William & Argye Hillis Scholars Program and a researcher in the Taube Lab at Baylor and Stoyanova Lab at Stanford. He has conducted research at various institutions including Baylor, Stanford, Harvard, and UCSF.
His Future
Arvind hopes to pursue an MD/PhD in stem cell biology. After medical school, he hopes to lead a research group conducting research on organoids and stem cell-based disease modeling techniques while teaching at the university level.
More from Arvind
The application process for the Goldwater can be daunting. However, you learn a lot about yourself through the process since you're forced to reflect on your future career goals, aspirations, and motivations. In addition, the Research Essay is a tremendous opportunity to highlight your proudest research accomplishments and articulate them in a way that can be easily digestible to your average science enthusiast. I'd highly recommend any student interested in STEM research to apply for the Goldwater.
Feel free to contact me for advice about the Goldwater or basic science research!