CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — One University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign sophomore and three juniors were awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their potential to contribute to the advancement of research in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.
Sophomore Maxwell Mamishev and juniors George Bayliss, Peter Golemis and Cliff Sun are among the 454 recipients of the $7,500 award, chosen from 1,485 nominees.
The result of an ongoing partnership with UWorld, a testing tools provider, and the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs, the scholarship program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater is the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
No university has had more Goldwater Scholarship recipients, 13, over the past three years than the U. of I.. “I always tell our students seeking nomination for the award that with our excellent campus STEM programs, the biggest challenge is earning one of the coveted endorsements from Illinois,” said David Schug, the director of the National and International Scholarships Program.
Maxwell Mamishev, a sophomore in electrical engineering, plans to pursue a doctorate in electrical and nuclear engineering with a goal of developing intelligent power and radiation-sensing systems for extreme-environment energy and space applications. He attended Nathan Hale High School in Seattle, where he worked on research projects at the University of Washington.
He has patented assistive devices for people who are blind or have low vision. As a first-year student at Illinois, he worked with electrical and computer engineering professor Arijit Banerjee’s research group and assisted in creating the Illinois Power Electronics Kit, an educational tool that illustrates some of the fundamental principles of power electronics. He also worked at the University of California, Berkeley, SETI Research Center developing next-generation signal processing hardware, and he led a team of students to detect transient plasma events that affect communication pathways around the globe for disaster relief efforts.
Most recently he has been working with nuclear, plasma and radiological engineering professor Angela DiFulvio’s Nuclear Measurement Laboratory, developing artificial intelligence methods for radiological safety and decision support.
George Bayliss, a junior in physics and mathematics, is from Arlington Heights, Ill., and attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in math and explore the intersection of algebraic geometry and homotopy theory.
He has completed a number of research projects in math and physics, including a project at the Illinois Mathematics Lab on the spatial spreading of altruism, which allowed him to mentor a project under the direction of math professor Olivia Clifton. He participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Chicago and currently works with math professor Jeremiah Heller, pursuing motivic homotopy theory.
Junior Peter Golemis is majoring in electrical engineering and physics. He would like to pursue his Ph.D. in physics and conduct experimental research on condensed matter systems. Originally from Skokie, Ill., he attended Evanston Township High School.
As a high school student, he participated in research at Northwestern University on single-atom thick graphene. He has continued research into 2D materials and scanning tunneling microscopy at Illinois with physics professors Pengjie Wang and Vidya Madhavan. Additionally, he participated in an REU at Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility.
Cliff Sun plans to obtain a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics with the goal of contributing to the development of a full-scale fault tolerant quantum-computer. From Buffalo, N.Y., he attended Williamsville North High School. He is a junior in mathematics and physics.
At Illinois, he investigates one-dimensional superconductivity with physics professor Alexey Bezryadin and has published papers on topics such as analogies between particle physics and superconducting quantum interference devices, symmetry breaking for diode applications and nanowire transmon qubits. The last result solves a 20-year problem in the nanowire community. He also researches quantum algorithms and compilation techniques for tensor networks at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab and previously led a NASA competition team as part of the Illinois Space Society.
Editor’s note: For more information, contact David Schug, National and International Scholarships Program director, 217-333-4710; topscholars@illinois.edu
