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Caide Wooten
William Crumpler, a senior studying materials science and engineering, is one of two NC State students who were selected as recipients of the 2015 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Crumpler is currently a research intern for Undercover Colors, a research group devoted to the development of nail polish designed to change color in the presence of date rape drugs. He also works on application-based projects with gold nanorods in the department of materials science and engineering. "Research has really meant a lot to me because of the way I've been able to engage with my discipline outside of textbooks- to be able to really see how science gets done and gain a respect for the information I have to learn in my classes. To have gotten this scholarship really means a lot to me because I've put quite a lot of time in working these past couple of years and dedicated my life to research," Crumpler said.
Two NC State students were recently awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, and one student received an honorable mention. The foundation, which was founded in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater, awards scholarships to college students based on their research in science, mathematics and engineering.
William Crumpler, a junior studying material science and engineering, was awarded the scholarship on his work on nanoparticle synthesis. Crumpler has worked on making, synthesizing and coating nanorods, as well as adjusting their size and shape after they’ve been grown.
“The gold nanorods are of interest because when you irradiate them with light, their electronic properties are such that they begin to give off heat,” Crumpler said. “That has potential applications for cancer therapy. If you can get the gold nanorods to stick to the cancer cells, you can heat them up and it will actually burn the cancer away.”
Crumpler also worked on the startup of Undercover Colors, a nail polish created by NC State students that potentially could detect date rape drugs. Since last January, Crumpler has worked as a research intern doing various tests of the indicators and polishes. Crumpler also spent last summer in Germany, working in a lab and researching nanoparticle synthesis.
Catie McVey, a senior studying animal science and statistics, was awarded a scholarship for her work with relating facial biometrics to personality traits in animals.
“The project I’ve worked on here at NC State is using piglets as models and predicting which ones are really aggressive,” McVey said. “The idea is if you can predict, from a picture of a pig’s face, which ones are going to be aggressive, you can adjust which ones to put where and minimize fighting in the pins.”
McVey has also worked with the statistics department on evaluating the tenure clock at NC State. According to McVey, the tenure clock allots an automatic one-year extension to both male and female faculty who have a new child. The program is meant to level out the playing field for faculty as they get renewed.
“We’ve been going back through HR data and looking at before 2002, when there wasn’t a policy, and after 2002, when there was a policy, and seeing if there were changes in the rate in which professors get tenure,” McVey said.
McVey spent last summer studying the personalities in pigs in Scotland and plans to intern in Australia this summer.
Junior chemistry major Matthew Boudreau was given an honorable mention from the Goldwater foundation. Since his freshman year, Boudreau has worked on making compounds that can be used to study and probe different types of diseases, with a specific focus on neurological diseases.
“My compound alters calcium ion influx,” Boudreau said. “Its mechanism is currently unknown, and one of the mechanisms for neurological disease is various calcium ion influx. So if you have a compound that can cause an unknown mechanism such as calcium ion influx, then you can start to study new mechanisms for neurological diseases.”
Boudreau plans to spend this summer doing cancer research in New York City. Forty-seven NC State students have been named Goldwater scholars.