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By Keith Davis |
Michael J. Axtell '98 and Michael R. Mazourek '99 were recently awarded 1997 Goldwater Scholarships. This is the first time in the College's history that two students received this prestigious honor in the same year. |
"After we applied, I thought if Mike would win, I wouldn't," Mazourek said. "It's really rare to have two winners from the same school, especially a school this size. There are universities a lot bigger than Ithaca College that don't have more than one winner. This is really something very special."
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Congress established the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program in 1986 to encourage young scholars to pursue research careers in mathematics, natural science, and engineering. Under this program, an endowment fund was established to award a limited number of Goldwater Scholarships each year to college sophomores and juniors who show a commitment to research in scientific and engineering disciplines. Competition for the awards is intense. This year, for example, from a national field of 1,164 applicants, only 282 scholarships were awarded. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses for tuition, fees, books, and room and board, up to a maximum of $7,000 annually. "I'm flattered and surprised," Axtell said. "Not that I feel I haven't done good work, but to be recognized by such a prestigious award is really exciting." Axtell's interest is environmental toxicology. The recipient of a Dana internship from Ithaca College and a cooperative grant from the National Science Foundation, he spent the summer between his sophomore and junior years in the Czech Republic studying the effects of acid rain damage to grasses. His research adviser was biology professor John Bernard. Mazourek, on the other hand, is studying how enzymes in a certain protein affect the ways cells convert food to energy. He hopes to discover a direct relationship between the enzymes and the roles they play in energy production. "You cause a change and then see whether that affects function or not," he said. "It's like taking your car apart to find out how it works. If you take out a part and the car overheats, obviously you know the piece you took out has something to do with the heating system." Understanding more about this process, he said, could better our understanding of a number of disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. "I think it's important that both these students became involved in research very early in their academic careers," said Vicki Cameron, an associate biology professor and Mazourek's research adviser. "That kind of involvement might be unusual at a lot of places, but not at Ithaca College. One can make the argument that involving our students early makes them competitive at a national level. And by competitive, I mean having the ability to demonstrate that they are going to continue to excel in scientific research. That's the criterion the judges who awarded these scholarships were looking for." Axtell, a junior biology major, plans to attend graduate school and continue his work in environmental toxicology. Mazourek is a sophomore biochemistry major and is also planning on graduate school, where he will concentrate on molecular genetics. Only three other Ithaca College students-Joseph Bliss '90, Thomas Boyd '94, and Peter Yakowec '96-have ever been named Goldwater Scholars. |