Applying for the Goldwater Scholarship

Overview
What is the Goldwater Scholarship?
My Background
Application Components

Overview

As a junior in college, I was graciously awarded the Goldwater Scholarship. The purpose of this post is to provide insight into the process of applying for the Goldwater Scholarship, including an overview of the scholarship, components of my application, and recommendations. When I applied for the Goldwater Scholarship in 2019, my university did not provide very many resources. I relied largely on the help of past winners and posts like this. I hope my personal experience with this process will be of help to future applicants.

What is the Goldwater Scholarship?

The Goldwater Scholarship Program is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics in the United States. Per the Goldwater website, the scholarship “seeks to identify, encourage, and financially support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming this Nation’s next generation of research leaders in these fields”.

The scholarship is awarded based upon merit and favors students who show a strong passion and dedication to a career in research. In my experience, most awardees go on to pursue a PhD.

My Background

I was a junior at Indiana University, Bloomington studying Computer Science and Mathematics. I had begun my undergraduate degree as a Biochemistry major, meaning most of the research I had completed prior to winning this award fell under Life Sciences. Because I explored a lot of different subject areas in my search for a topic I was passionate about, I had no significant research contributions when I applied for the Goldwater (i.e. no publications). However, I had been working on a project in Biophysics on and off for over a year, so I decided to apply with that project in mind.

I believe the Goldwater looks for individuals who show passion and potential for completing exceptional research, but does not necessarily require you to have already done so (realistically, most undergraduates won’t do so). Further, I feel the Goldwater looks for individuals who have strived to go above and beyond the resources easily available to them. For instance, at my university, undergraduates had to go out of their way to find research opportunities (i.e. cold emailing professors, talking to grad students, etc.). Showing, through anecdotes, that you are a student who is able to take initiative in your academic career is one way to show your potential to succeed in academia. This is what I focused on.

Application Components

When I applied in 2019-2020, the application contained the following major components. I have included all of my answers below.

Career Goals/Professional Aspirations

In one or two sentences, describe your career goals and professional aspirations. This statement will be used in publications if you are selected as a scholar.

Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics. Conduct research in mathematical biology and teach at the university level.
What are your career goals and professional aspirations? Indicate which area(s) of mathematics, science or engineering you are considering pursuing in your research career and specify how your current academic program and your overall educational plans will assist you in achieving your career goals and professional aspirations. This is an expansion of the brief description of the career goals and professional aspirations you provided above (3000-character limit including spaces)

I aspire to eventually hold a professorship at a research oriented academic institution and to lead a research team in conducting cutting edge research on problems in mathematical biology and computational medicine. This aspiration is motivated by a desire to better understand complex biological systems that are not easily amenable to experimentation and to take advantage of advances in the biological sciences that are producing large amounts of data. I hope to conduct research that positions me to be a leader in combating human disease and understanding difficult biology through the use of computation and ultimately mathematical modeling and theory. In order to pursue these aspirations I am currently pursuing a degree in both Computer Science and Mathematics. I have found both these courses of study extremely useful in providing conceptual frameworks for problem-solving, and then have chosen to apply these frameworks to a subject area I find exciting: biomedical sciences. The course work has exposed me to both the theory behind mathematical modeling and the tools most effective for analyzing such models. I also exposed myself to a variety of types of research within the biomedical sciences to gain a breadth of perspective and to determine where I could see myself working. I began my undergraduate career conducting neuroscience research through a scholarship program, the Intensive Freshman Learning Experience at Indiana University. I then conducted a short project on computational cancer biology. Since then, I have worked for two years on a project investigating various protein systems in bacteria and their corresponding mathematical models. Throughout all of these experiences, I have sought to further my computational skills and mathematical reasoning to provide a strong foundation for future work. My current research project provides a glimpse into the type of research I hope to perform as a graduate student and beyond. This summer I will be participating in a REU, to further refine both my skills and my interests. My next educational step will be pursuing a Ph.D. in applied mathematics to gain a comprehensive education in creating mathematical models and to learn how to conduct original research. I will continue to seek out subject area expertise that will be key to thrive in an interdisciplinary research space and to fully understand how my work can further that of experimental and medical scientists. I hope my career takes shape in a way that allows me to collaborate across the mathematical and biological sciences and to share my enthusiasm for mathematics with students like my mentor has with me. I am excited to continue developing my research and teaching skills in the years to come.
Describe an activity or experience that has been important in helping shape or reinforce your desire to pursue a research career in science, mathematics or engineering. (1500-character limit including spaces)

Part of pursuing a degree in computer science involves being exposed to the glamorous life of working in Big Tech. This past summer, I had the opportunity to explore this life first-hand during my internship as a Software Development Engineer at Amazon. While I was able to refine my coding skills and work closely with distinguished individuals in the field, I was left feeling unfulfilled every day I left work. I worked on a project that provided no positive societal impact and seemed to be merely writing scalable code. I immediately recognized that I could not spend a lifetime in industry. I had always enjoyed being involved in research, welcoming the constant challenges and learning opportunities it granted. However, after working on something that did not inspire or stimulate me for a whole summer, I know pursuing research is not merely a passion, but something I want to do for a career. A career in academic research would allow me to explore the problems that I find interesting and build a career in mathematics that will provide me fulfillment.
Goldwater Scholars will be representative of the diverse economic, ethnic and occupational backgrounds of families in the United States. Describe any social and/or economic impacts you have encountered that influenced your education - either positively or negatively - and how you have dealt with them. (1500-character limit including spaces)

I grew up in a small, suburban town in Indiana outside of Chicago that was equally influenced by the city and the surrounding rural communities. Growing up there was happy but not idyllic. I benefited from a strong sense of community and demographic privilege, but because of the dominance of blue-collar professions never once thought it could be possible to make a career out of intellectual work. Conducting research just wasn’t something that you could do. It wasn’t until I watched my oldest brother get involved in research while in college that I realized you could answer abstract questions for a living. His initial modeling has been continued by my research mentors, and I now feel that intellectual work is what will fulfill me. Another important aspect of my educational journey has been being a woman in a male-dominated field. Community is what allows us to find joy in our work and provides purpose for why we do our work. The real problem with being the only woman in your class is that if affects the social dynamics of that community. I have dealt with this by seeking out women role models like my research mentor who can help guide me as I grow into my own role in the field and as a leader. I hope one day to be that mentor for someone else.

Research Projects and Skills

In chronological order, from earliest to most recent, list up to five research projects you consider to be your most significant work associated with your interests in the sciences, mathematics or engineering. Briefly describe the project, being certain to include a description of your involvement in and contributions to the work. Outputs of projects - papers and presentations - are of particular interest to those reviewing your materials. These help a reviewer calibrate the significance of the work. Please be certain to provide this information. Finally, list up to three individuals who provided you with significant mentoring on the project.
Project 1: Microglial cells migrate in response to endogenous lipids. In neurodegenerative diseases, the processes these cells undergo is interrupted and they cannot function properly. N-arachinodoyl glycine (NAGly), an endogenous lipid,causes concentration dependent migration. I was curious what structurally similar endogenous lipids to NAGly also induced migration in BV2 microglial cells. In order to study this, I exposed BV2 microglial cells to structurally analogous endogenous lipids and observed if the cells migrated. Using a Boyden Chamber and serum starved BV2 cells, I created stained filters of the migrated cells and counted the cells using a structured counting system. I found that BV2 microglial cells responded in some degree to every lipid introduced to them. This could be contributed to the lipids interacting with calcium receptors, causing calcium to act as a secondary messenger and resulting in migration. This provided a future direction for this project.
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2017 Integrated Freshman Learning Experience Summer Presentation
 	Boyden Chamber Migration Assays with BV2 Microglial Cells
 	Liz Dietrich
 	Mentor: Professor Heather Bradshaw
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Project 2: Cancer is an extremely complex process that simulations can help us test rules to see what matches reality. Breast cancer cells become invasive and metastasize in low oxygen. Biologists at John Hopkins use color-changing red/green fluorescent protein markers to track cell state. I modeled these fluorescent protein dynamics as two ordinary differential equations in each individual tumor cell. Through my simulation of over a day, I found many normoxic, healthy cells were shown to experience hypoxia, creating a dead center of the tumor. However, there was a lag in activating fluorescent markers which means the colors did not reflect the current state accurately. Even with this defect, future directions could be derived which included adding vasculature to the model tumor, changing the cell cycle speed, and adding the invasion of blood vessels.
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2017 Indiana University SICE Fall Poster Symposium
 Simulating Cancer Behavior
 Liz Dietrich, Andrew Gotts, Brandon Fischer, Davis Joseph, Noah Baker
 Mentors: Professor Paul Macklin, Randy Heiland, John Metzcar
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Project 3: Personal social network data can be used to design, implement, and disseminate health behavior interventions; however, the interface design for collecting this data is tedious and not ideal for populations with low literacy levels. EnsoTM is an open-source, mobile-ready, touch-screen data collection system that uses principles of clear health communication to collect and deliver accurate data. I designed additional features for this platform and implemented usability testing to collect feedback for future improvements. After drafting a wireframe and implementing the new designs in EnsoTM, the new platform was tested on students. While this was not the target population, it provided feedback that gave the project a future direction. I concluded that there needed to be more visualize stimulation, for even our test subjects responded better to graphics. In the future, graphics will replace the text and the new platform will be tested on the target, low literacy population.
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 2018 Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science
     Usability Testing of a Data Collection Platform for Addressing Health Disparities
     Liz Dietrich, Adriana Navarro, Atmana Joshi, Kat Law, Brittany Davis
     Mentor: Dr. Kate Eddens
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Project 4: The bacterial flagellum represents one of the largest bacterial surface structures and enables bacteria to swim through liquids or swarm over surfaces. Very little is known on how bacteria reproducibly establish place and number of their flagella during each round of cell division. Two proteins, FlhF and FlhG have been found to be essential in this process. These proteins interact similarly to the Min-protein system. I solved the reaction-diffusion equations for Min protein interactions in static cells, described by the system of parabolic PDEs. Specifically, I determined that increasing the diffusion constants for cytosolic MinD and MinE (consistent with the expected effect of cellular growth on the spread of cytoplasmic concentrations) was required to produce the expected spatiotemporal oscillations. Building on the current MinCDE modeling framework and results, we will construct a reaction-diffusion model describing the biochemical interactions of FlhF/G proteins, their membrane binding and localization kinetics to flagellar basal bodies, using existing experimental results from wild-type and mutant cells.
Briefly describe up to five (5) research skills you have developed that will be important going forward in your research career. You may have acquired these skills by participating in one of the research projects you have reported, from courses, or from other life experiences.
1. Mathematical Modeling: I have described physical systems using governing equations, supplementary sub-models, constraints, and initial and boundary conditions. I have worked with dynamic systems and have learned to represent them using differential equations.
2. Coding: I have expanded my programming skills to mathematical programming which allows me to optimize equations, compute values of models, and estimate parameter values. I am proficient in a wide range of programming languages including MATLAB, R, C++, Java, Scheme, and many more.
3. Cell Culture: Wet lab knowledge
4. Data analysis: I have modeled various types of data, including elliptical equations that exhibit oscillations.

Other Activities and Accomplishments

In order of importance to you, list up to five activities and/or accomplishments you were involved in while in college. These activities (e.g., clubs, student government, music or art activities, community activities, sports activities, etc.) may have been affiliated with your college or university or they may have been associated with other organizations.
1. Undergraduate Instructor : I am an Undergraduate Instructor for Introduction to Computer Science. The course teaches the fundamentals of programming. I assist in lectures, lead a lab section, host office hours, and grade assignments, quizzes, and exams.
2. Director of Alumni Relations Office of Scholarships : I travel to major cities around the Midwest to recruit prospective IU students. I ensure the Office of Scholarships has updated records of former students, and I establish long-term relationships with alumni by inviting them to current events.
3. Director of Computers Indiana University Panhellenic : I maintain the data systems used by the Panhellenic Association at Indiana University. I control the flux of data between organizations and handle any technical issues that arise. This involves overseeing the records of over two thousand women.
4. Opportunities for Undergraduate Research in Computer Science : I attended a 3-day workshop in which I showed that the data collection platform EnsoTM required changes in order to be used by low-literacy populations. I designed and implemented graphics and did a usability assessment of my suggested improvements.
5. Racket Summer School Participant : I worked on the framework for language-oriented programming with the creator of Racket. This allows easy creation and >integration of embedded domain-specific languages.

Research Essay

The Research Essay is described in detail here.

I was advised by previous scholars to write my essay about the research project I was most familiar with. This could be a completed project that you have already written a publication on, or, in my case, an active research project. I believe the two most important factors when choosing a topic include : 1) the ability to discuss how you personally contributed to the project, and 2) the ability to demonstrate extensive knowledge and passion for the topic.

While writing my Research Essay, I struggled to balance technical terminology and relatability. This was one of the first technical reports I had written on my research, and I found myself a bit lost in the technical jargon. It is crucial to present your research and contributions in a balanced way that allows someone who is broadly trained in STEM, but may not be an expert in your sub-field, to understand your work. It is very important that your Research Essay is clearly written, accessible to your general field, and emphasizes your contributions and ability to perform independent research.

I have provided my winning essay for reference below.

Goldwater-Dietrich-final.pdf

Letters of Recommendation

As a junior, I was not confident in my decision of what professors to ask to support my application and what material to ask them to include. I knew the most important letter would come from my research advisor, as I wrote my research essay based on our work. Additionally, I had been an undergraduate instructor for multiple semesters. Therefore, I asked the supervising professor to write me a letter of recommendation as well. However, deciding on the third letter writer proved more challenging. I first asked a professor of a graduate-level mathematics course I was taking. However, I settled on my old research advisor from my time in the life sciences. The committee at my university encouraged this switch, based on the latter’s knowledge of my research abilities. They felt this was more important than course-work. Given the knowledge I have now, I agree that it is most important to choose recommenders who can speak on your ability to work and contribute independently to research or related activities.

Additionally, I was advised that it is particularly helpful if your recommenders can provide a comparison of you to other students they have known and worked with who have successfully pursued doctoral degrees or previously won the Goldwater Scholarship. I sent my letter writers the link to this page, for further guidance.