Most scholarship applications ask for a resume, letters of recommendation and essays. In addition to these components, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship required its applicants to discuss personally conducted research, along with a proposal for a future research project.

Warren Perry, a senior in biological science, Joe Morrow, a sophomore in aerospace engineering, Jennifer Boyd, a junior in biomedical engineering and Jennifer Ricks, a senior in biochemistry, became part of a national group of recipients of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. “It’s a very prestigious scholarship,” Ricks said. “The scholarship recognizes undergraduates who have potential in careers in science, math and engineering.”

Ricks applied for the scholarship last year but did not receive it. She said she felt her application improved this year because she wrote her essay on her recent cancer research.

“Our project is to use plant viruses to deliver cancer drugs to cells,” Ricks said. “Hopefully, it will allow therapy drugs to attack cancer cells.”

The project’s goal is to find a drug to interfere with the genes of cancer cells by attacking the nucleus.

“With the virus targeting the nucleus, it does have an effect on the cancerous cells more than just the regular medicine,” Ricks said.

The Goldwater Scholarship pays for Ricks’, along with the other recipients’, tuition and books.

Morrow said the scholarship made a significant difference in being able to afford higher education. More than tuition, he said the scholarship will also be an advantage when he applies for graduate school.

Morrow conducted previous research in an experiment that tested the “adjustable jet flap development for energy efficient circulation control.”

Along with graduate students from N.C. State, Morrow’s group put a plane into a wind tunnel to simulate the plane flying. As they “threw air” into the tunnel, they measured how much air control they had compared to the size of the airplane’s wing span.

Morrow said he is expanding the experiment through independent research by calculating drag coefficients of a plane while it is simulated in the wind tunnel.

He said his interest in aerospace engineering began when he was a young child living on an Air Force base with his family.

“I would get up really early to watch the planes take off,” Morrow said. “I just had this fascination with planes and decided to go into aerospace engineering.”

Morrow plans to earn a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering.

Boyd said she also plans to earn a doctoral degree in the same research field she is working in — rehabilitating injuries and preventing injuries for athletes.

Boyd said she is a runner on the cross country and track team.

“That’s where I got the basic idea [for my research] from being in class and seeing the injuries in life,” Boyd said.

Boyd is beginning her independent research this summer at Duke by testing different styles of running shoes to determine which one is best for various events, such as exercising at the gym or running a track race.

“Hopefully, this will help people not to deal with injury,” she said.

Boyd said she also hopes to publish her work after this summer.

“[The Goldwater Scholars] showed that the University can stand on equal footing like ‘big name schools’ that we usually hear about, like Stanford or Princeton,” Boyd said. ” The University has a lot to offer in the research field.”

Perry said he felt his involvement on campus in addition to his previous research helped him earn the Goldwater Scholarship.

Perry’s interest in researching epilepsy also began in college after he took a genetics class.

Epilepsy is a condition in which people suffer seizures of varying strengths. The different levels of seizures include staring seizures, no seizures at all or grand mal seizures, which are the most violent, according to Perry.

Perry’s research tests the effects of genetics on epilepsy medicine.

He said he felt the Goldwater Scholarship helped him to continue his research on genetics, epilepsy and the nervous system, and he wants to use his research when he owns an epileptic clinic.

For the scholarship, Perry said he wrote about an experiment he conducted during his sophomore year at NCSU, which dealt with the development of the nervous system in mammals by testing fruit flies.

“Don’t write what you think they want you to write about,” Perry said. “Write about you.”