Three MSU students receive prestigious Goldwater Scholarship

Contact: Mary Pollitz

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Three Mississippi State students are celebrating their selection as national Barry Goldwater Scholars.

Hannah Henson of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Jessica “Rayne” Rutherford of Huntsville, Alabama, and India “Alex” White of Saltillo are receiving one of the nation’s premier undergraduate scholarships for STEM students who have significant research experience and a passion for making important research contributions in graduate school and their careers.

MSU President Mark E. Keenum commended the scholars on their latest achievements.

“I am very proud of Hannah, Rayne and Alex and applaud them for their remarkable commitment to pursuing meaningful research as undergraduates. They are most deserving of this prestigious recognition as Goldwater Scholars,” Keenum said. “I also appreciate the dedication of our faculty who serve as teachers, mentors and role models for the future scientists, scholars and leaders our state and nation need.”

Together, the Judy and Bobby Schackouls Honors College students are the university’s 28th, 29th and 30th students to achieve this honor since the Goldwater Foundation’s inception. The MSU awardees are among only 454 Goldwater Scholars chosen this year from approximately 5,000 natural science, engineering and mathematics students nominated by 482 institutions.

Henson, a microbiology junior, hopes to advance women’s health as a physician-scientist through reproductive disorder research and by focusing on studies directly improving women’s lives. This scholarship will provide additional stability and resources as she continues her path toward medical school.

Henson has served her MSU undergraduate research assistantships at the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s School of Medicine, where she studied immune cell modulation in breast cancer, attended numerous seminars and received 15 hours of shadowing in the operating room. She also served as an undergraduate researcher for MSU’s Neural Engineering Research Division, and as a supplemental instruction leader and Health Professions Resource Center pre-health ambassador.

Rutherford, a chemical engineering sophomore, is an MSU Luke and Ruth Davis Presidential Endowed Scholar with research experience in neurodegenerative disease Cochran Lab of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. She also worked at MSU’s Gout lab with transcription fidelity and with Huntsville’s Sulfilatec as a summer intern.

Rutherford intends to pursue a Ph.D. in computational biology to apply machine learning and genome modeling with the National Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Throughout her academic career, she worked as a supplemental instruction leader, programming tutor with Log Cabin Schoolhouse and as a student intern with technology and engineering company COLSA. She is a member of the Lambda Sigma Honor Society and serves as president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, previously serving as the institute’s vice president and K-12 outreach director.

White, a biomedical engineering junior, is an MSU Luckyday Scholar who plans to lead her own lab, spearheading research and teaching at a hospital, helping advance breast cancer treatment options. White boasts research experience with MSU’s Priddy Lab and Neural Engineering Research Division, UAB’s Advanced Medical Imaging Research Division and the University of Mississippi’s A.R.I.S.E program. She previously served as the secretary for MSU’s Unified Sports program and is a Tau Beta Pi member, Brickfire Project Program mentor, Luckyday Scholars Program mentor and Spring Preview Day panelist.

David Hoffman, director of MSU’s Office of Prestigious External Scholarships, said these students will represent the university well as they continue their impact on STEM research.

“We are extremely excited about having three Goldwater scholars for only the third time in MSU history,” he said. “This outcome is a demonstration of the hard work and dedication to research these students have had since they stepped foot on the MSU campus. It is amazing to hear about the groundbreaking work they are doing alongside their research mentors here at MSU and beyond. All three of them have promising careers in STEM research in their future as is evident from their proven ability to present and publish the work they are conducting as undergraduates.”

For more information about the Goldwater Scholarship program, visit www.goldwaterscholarship.gov.

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