Physics Major Andrea Sylvia Biscoveanu Awarded a Goldwater Scholarship

Penn State University student Andrea Sylvia Biscoveanu is the recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The scholarship is the premier award of its type in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. Biscoveanu is a junior, double majoring in Physics and Spanish and pursuing minors in Mathematics and Violin Performance, and also a Schreyer Scholar.

Biscoveanu conducts astrophysics research with Miguel Mostafá, associate professor of physics, studying cosmic rays using data from the Pierre Auger Observatory.

Grant Smith, a junior physics major and nanotechnology minor, was awarded a Goldwater Honorable Mention. Smith is an undergraduate researcher in Professor of Physics Nitin Samarth's lab.

The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established in 1986. The Scholarship Program, honoring Sen. Barry Goldwater who served the United States for more than five decades as a soldier and statesman, was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Since the first scholarships were awarded in 1989, the Foundation has bestowed $48 million in scholarship funds through more than 7,000 scholarships.