Two Duke students are among the 278 students nationwide to receive the 2010 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in science, mathematics and engineering.
Juniors Nicholas Altemose and Jared Dunnmon will receive the $7,500 scholarship to pay for undergraduate tuition and fees.
The University nominated four students for the scholarship after an internal review process earlier this academic year.
Altemose, a biology major, has conducted research in genomics for the past three years and has worked in the lab of Huntington Willard, director of the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy. He added that he hopes to uncover the function of 7 percent of the human genome that is yet to be sequenced.
“I’m incredibly grateful to Dr. Willard, who took me into his lab as a freshman with no experience, for giving me the best training a scientist could ask for,” Altemose said.
He added that he plans to apply to genomics programs for graduate school, but said he may pursue other areas of research within the fields of cell or molecular biology. Altemose is currently an Angier B. Duke scholar, a merit-based program awarding academic excellence.
Fellow A.B. Duke scholar Dunnmon, a mechanical engineering and economics double major, said he hopes to research energy issues from the perspective of policy as well as technology. Since his freshman year, he has researched how to optimize energy from lower wind speeds. The National Academy of Engineering named him a member of its 2009 Grand Challenge Scholars program, which aims to equip students to address societal engineering needs, he added.
Dunnmon, who intends to obtain both a Ph.D. and a law degree, said he hopes to address how to work with the government to solve energy issues.
The scholarship committee also recognized junior Alan Guo with an honorable mention for his work in combinational mathematics. The mathematics major said he plotted the moves a person could make in complex lattice games and studied the structure of the winning positions. Guo said he plans to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics.
“[Receiving an honorable mention] feels great because... the field of combinatorial game theory... is still in its... baby stage of development,” Guo said.
Altemose and Dunnmon are among a total of 69 Duke students to have been named Goldwater Scholars since 1988, according to a Wednesday Duke news release.
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