Three UMass Amherst Students Awarded Prestigious Goldwater Scholarships

Three third-year UMass Amherst students have won scholarships for the 2024-25 academic year from the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

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The recently announced scholarships will be awarded to June Ahn, Kevin Alexander and Ryan Bahlous-Boldi, all members of the class of 2025, who will each be dedicating their careers to work as scientists and in higher education.

The Goldwater Foundation provides a continuing source of highly qualified scholars to work as scientists, mathematicians and engineers. The Goldwater Scholarship supports students who have a passion for research, potential to contribute to their disciplines, and who plan to pursue a graduate degree. 

The three Goldwater scholars from UMass Amherst are all Commonwealth Honors College juniors committed to a career in STEM research.

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Ahn, a biochemistry and molecular biology major from Brookline, Massachusetts and South Korea, plans to earn a doctoral degree in virology and become a physician-scientist with specialization in translational sciences and the study of rare and lesser-known diseases, especially genetic disorders.

“Although translational research frequently focuses on more common conditions, such as different types of cancer, my passion is dedicated to addressing the challenges posed by obscure diseases that persist in affecting humanity,” Ahn says.

Alexander, a triple major in chemistry, physics and math from Lexington, Massachusetts, wishes to expand his future studies by earning a doctoral degree in physical chemistry and teach.

“My research will likely focus on spectroscopic method development. I plan on applying these novel spectroscopic tools to study interesting chemical problems. My career goal is to become a professor and lead my own research group,” Alexander says. 

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Bahlous-Boldi, a computer science major with minors in philosophy and psychology from Boston, Massachusetts and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has a career plan to study the emergence of intelligence from the perspective of evolving and learning artificial systems. 

“With this in mind, I hope to complete a Ph.D. in computer science and eventually continue investigating the same questions in academia or in the industry,” Bahlous-Boldi says.

“I am proud to work with UMass Amherst students and be part of a great village of faculty, mentors and advisers who have contributed to their success and the visibility of our university nationally,” Madalina Akli, director of the UMass Amherst Office of National Scholarship Advisement and Goldwater advisor, says.

Student nominations for the Goldwater were made possible by UMass Amherst’s Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA), an advising service available to all UMass Amherst undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to the university’s alumni. Each year, ONSA nominates four sophomores or juniors for the Goldwater Scholarship and Akli encourages STEM sophomores and juniors to contact ONSA for advising.