Three Rice students named Goldwater Scholars

Three Rice University undergraduate students have been named Goldwater Scholars for the 2015-16 academic year. Peter Cabeceiras, Kenny Groszman and Eric Sung are among 260 college students across the country chosen for this honor from more than 1,200 nominees based on academic merit.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation will provide the scholars with up to $7,500 toward tuition, fees, books, and room and board. The scholarship is intended to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering.

Peter Cabeceiras

Cabeceiras, from Livermore, Calif., is a Wiess College junior majoring in biochemistry and cell biology. His career goal is to earn a medical degree and a doctorate in cancer biology and then focus on teaching, basic and translational research and clinical work as a physician scientist at a research hospital.

As a Rice student, Cabeceiras held a college student researcher position at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he helped discover that a frequently mutated gene in melanoma promotes drug resistance. He has also studied genome-editing technologies as part of a collaborative research project between Rice and MD Anderson. This summer he will conduct research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute EXROP Scholar. Cabeceiras received an honorable mention from the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association for his first-place research presentation at the 2014 National Collegiate Research Conference. He is the second author on a recent paper published in the journal Cancer Research.

A member of the Rice Undergraduate Scholars Program, Cabeceiras writes for the student research journal Catalyst and serves as a peer research adviser and a liaison for the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association. He has served as a senator for Wiess and as a mentor for the Designing With Rice Engineers – Advancement Through Mentorship program that works with high school students in the sciences.

Kenny Groszman

Groszman, from Boca Raton, Fla., is a Hanszen College sophomore majoring in bioengineering and minoring in computational and applied mathematics. He plans to obtain a Ph.D. in bioengineering and specialize in synthetic biology, with the ultimate goal of conducting synthetic biology research and teaching at a university.

“I find synthetic biology exciting because of its unbounded potential to change the world by harnessing the power of biological building blocks,” Groszman said. “This is applicable in producing novel technologies in medicine, bioenergy production, manufacturing and pretty much any other field.”

He was part of a student engineering team that designed a rack to transport three bikes at a time via a city bus in Houston – a project that won the Texas Department of Transportation’s College Challenge. He is currently external vice president and former secretary and Beer Bike coordinator for Hanszen and a former peer academic adviser.

Eric Sung

Sung, from Plano, Texas, is a Lovett College junior majoring in computational and applied mathematics and mathematics and minoring in neuroscience. He wants to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience and conduct research in neuroscience focusing on learning and memory from a computationally motivated perspective. He hopes to apply this research toward understanding the neural causes of neuropsychiatric disorders and how they manifest in patients.

Sung currently works in a lab at Baylor College of Medicine, where he’s studying a neuron found in locusts that helps mediate escape behavior. “I find it particularly interesting because I can utilize mathematical theory to try to explain something as complicated as a neuron,” Sung said. “Biology is usually not as simple as a series of equations, but in some instances we can better characterize these phenomena with mathematics.”

At Rice Sung is president of a dance club called Funkonomics Crew that specializes in a variety of street dance styles, such as breaking, popping and hip-hop. He practices his moves, prepares for performances and teaches others. He said this extracurricular activity helps him relax and contributes toward a more wholesome college experience.

The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency that honors the late Barry M. Goldwater, who represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate. The Goldwater Scholarship is considered the premier undergraduate award of its type in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering.