2021 Goldwater Scholarship Nominees

Congratulations to 2021 Goldwater Scholarship nominees from MSUM: Bridgett Grosz and MaryJo Nelson. The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program is a nationally recognized and prestigious program designed to provide support to highly qualified students who are planning on pursuing careers in science, math and engineering. The student nominees were selected based on strong academic performance, involvement in research, and plans to pursue postgraduate degrees.

Bridgett is a third-year geoscience major with a minor in astronomy and GIS certification. She is actively involved in an experimental petrology research group with Dr, Russ Colson. The study views the effects of different minerals in silicate melts. As the current senior researcher,  Bridgett works with the experimental lunar samples in the furnace melt, mixing and composing samples, and leading experimental trials. Bridgett has also been working with Dr. Karl Leonard in his research at the Regional Science Center creating planetary volcanology shows and updating information regarding volcanology for MSUM’s Planetarium. And she has begun research in the relationship of lead in soil near Highway 10, using an XRF analyzer gun, a new tool in the department. After MSUM, Bridgett plans to pursue a Ph.D. in planetary volcanology and conduct research in this field.

MaryJo is majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and has been studying the recent phenomenon of Merlins, a small falcon breeding in urban settings. She is also  involved with the Geospatial Ecology Lab (GEL) in the Biosciences department and has written two grants for projects in the field of ornithology with the GEL lab, both of which were fully funded. One of the projects is regarding Merlins (Falco colubarius) breeding in and urban setting, where she helped to design the study, built maps in ArcGIS, conducted field research and preliminary analyses, and made  presentations at MSUM and at the Raptor Research Conference. MaryJo also conducted bird surveys this summer at the regional Science Center for the longitudinal study looking at fluctuating bird populations in the area. 

The Goldwater Foundation awardees will be announced in March 2021.