Purdue student receives national Goldwater Scholarship

04-12-2016

Purdue University junior Shovik Bandyopadhyay is a new 2016 Goldwater Scholar.

Congress established the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established in 1986. It awards up to $7,500 toward tuition, fees, and board to sophomores and juniors pursuing research careers in science, mathematics or engineering.

Goldwater Scholarship recipients are undergraduate students who already conduct research in their fields and show promise for the future. Students pursuing the scholarship participate in a university-wide nomination process through Purdue's National and International Scholarships Office, housed in Purdue Honors College.

Bandyopadhyay, of Eureka, Missouri, studies biological science in the College of Science and Honors College. He is laying the foundation to pursue his goal to discover new and better treatments for blood cancers.

"I aspire to focus on research in cancer biology while maintaining patient contact," he said. "My research should translate into treatments and maintain the human side of medicine."

At Purdue, Bandyopadhyay has conducted research in the lab of Ji-Xin Cheng, a professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry, and spent his summers in the lab of Stephen Oh at Washington University in St. Louis. He initiated a cooperative effort between their laboratories to research the combination of two drugs for a synergistic interaction to fight chronic myelogenous leukemia.

"In my 12 years as a faculty member at Purdue, I have never seen an undergraduate student start and facilitate collaboration at this level between two specialized labs at major research universities," Cheng said.

Bandyopadhyay said he also is committed to supporting the health of his local community and citizens abroad.

"Shovik is highly regarded for his academic talents in biology, which he expands with activities outside the lab and the classroom," said Rhonda Phillips, dean of the Honors College.

Bandyopadhyay began a regional "Get Onboard Active Living University" program together with IU Health, which taught and mentored nearly 100 elementary school children in 12 sessions with Purdue student mentors. The Purdue volunteers were drawn from students who also volunteer for Timmy Global Health, an organization close to his heart. With Timmy, Bandyopadhyay went to Quito, Ecuador, to care for local citizens attending the clinic.

Media contact: Sashaun Wood, Purdue Honors College, 765-496-1146, sashaunwood@purdue.edu