For the next consecutive year, a Michigan Tech pupil has been awarded one particular of the
nation’s most prestigious undergraduate research scholarships.
Kaylee Meyers, a 3rd-year pupil at Michigan Technological College, has obtained
one particular of the nation’s optimum accolades for school undergraduates. The biomedical engineering important from Essexville, Michigan is the twelfth Michigan Tech pupil to obtain the
prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
Set up in 1989 by Congress to honor the late Arizona senator and administered
by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education and learning Foundation, Goldwater scholarships are awarded to school sophomores and juniors. The awards
are dependent on educational merit, research practical experience and intent to pursue a occupation in
science, engineering or arithmetic.
As portion of the range system, colleges nominate up to four learners who intend
to pursue a occupation in research and have at the very least a 3. GPA. As one particular of 396 recipients
picked from roughly five,000 nominees, Meyers will obtain a fiscal award
to be made use of on bills like tuition, guides, and space and board for her senior year.
Serving to to Recover
Meyers produced a “passion for engineering” when concerned with First Robotics in
substantial university. “But I also definitely desired to operate in the health-related discipline, so biomedical
engineering was the fantastic mix of the two,” she explained.
Meyers’ research focuses on engineered biomaterials. “More exclusively, injectable
biomaterials that could be made use of to speed up wound healing in hurt tendons,” she
explained.
“Kaylee’s operate has led to novel knowledge regarding how injectable biomaterials can be
made use of to manage cell and molecular mechanisms concerned in tendon repair service,” explained Meyer’s
research advisor, Rupak Rajachar, a principal lecturer in biomedical engineering at
Michigan Tech. “These conclusions are the foundation for one particular of two 1st-creator manuscripts
she is currently producing.”
Meyers’ next manuscript is made up of the effects of her resourceful endeavours to assistance build
a table-best ultrasound procedure for use in specific drug shipping from biomaterials.
Meyers’ and Rajachar’s research was a short while ago awarded a next grant from the Countrywide
Institutes of Wellness (NIH) to operate on incorporating concentrated ultrasound into the research
as a result of a collaborative undertaking with Michigan Tech alumnus Eli Vlaisavljevich, a past
Goldwater Scholarship recipient, member of the Engineered Biomaterials Lab group
and existing college at Virginia Tech.
In addition to the NIH grant and Goldwater Scholarship, Meyers’ research has obtained
help from the Portage Wellness Foundation and the Charles Steger Worldwide Internship
Award from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. She explained such funding for undergraduate
research is very important.
“I think outside the house funding is important for the undergraduate research we do in the
lab, as it enables us to operate on solving definitely fascinating engineering challenges,”
she explained.
An Early Start off
Meyers’ Michigan Tech journey started at the University’s Summer Youth Program (SYP).
When she 1st established foot on campus in 2016, she could not foresee the path she would
just take, but she understood from the start she was at a specific spot.
“The summertime after my junior year of substantial university, I attended MTU’s Gals in Engineering
Program,” Meyers explained. “I acquired a lot about engineering and had a chance to investigate
the campus and encompassing place.”
A self-described “avid outdoorswoman” who loves to hike, bicycle, ski, path run and
kayak, she understood that Tech’s teachers and site would be a excellent fit. A handful of months
later, she discovered that the “good fit” extended to the classroom and lab as nicely.
“As a senior, I attended MTU Preview Working day, the place I fulfilled my research advisor, Dr. Rajachar,
and his Engineered Biomaterials Lab group,” she explained. “Through them, I acquired about
the near campus group and what undergraduate research was like at Tech. It strengthened
my final decision to appear listed here.”
Continuing a Very pleased Custom
Meyers is Michigan Tech’s fourth Goldwater Scholarship recipient in the past 5
years and the next consecutive MTU pupil to be so honored. Third-year organic
sciences important Tessa Steenwinkel won the scholarship previous year.
Meyer’s lengthy-phrase objectives are to get paid her PhD in biomedical engineering and finally
run a research lab of her individual as a principal investigator and university professor.
“I think Tech is extremely excellent at promoting students from all backgrounds in STEM fields,
specifically as a result of youth outreach and our supportive campus group.”
Rajachar explained it is thrilling to see the likely broader affect Meyers can have each
as a graduate pupil and long run mentor to the next era of learners in STEM
fields.
“She acknowledges that the finest present any scientific mentor can supply is their
time and an ecosystem that empowers younger learners to think in challenging operate and their
individual potential to resolve challenges,” he explained.
Meyers is in remarkable firm as the fifth Michigan Tech biomedical engineering
important to obtain a Goldwater Scholarship, additional than any other discipline at the College,
and the 3rd to be mentored by Rajachar.
Vlaisavljevich, who won the scholarship in 2009, is an assistant professor of biomedical
engineering at Virginia Tech and has recognized a laboratory developing therapeutic
ultrasound tools. 2012 scholarship recipient Hal Holmes is a guide engineer at Conservation
X Labs, developing slicing-edge genetic screening know-how for conservation.
Rajachar is confident Meyers will are living up to the substantial typical established by her predecessors.
“I definitely think that Kaylee can meet or exceed the achievements of any previous pupil
from my lab,” he explained. “I highlight their achievements so far as researchers not
only to convey the significance of the Goldwater and the toughness of my belief in
Kaylee, but additional importantly to understand that just about every of them also serves as a mentor
to Kaylee, serving to her as she operates diligently toward conference what I think is her
fantastic assure as a scientist and engineer.”
When the time comes for Meyers to mentor learners of her individual, she’ll replicate on her
personalized purpose model. “I want to thank my research advisor, Dr. Rajachar, for offering
me and several other learners the possibility to get concerned in undergraduate research
in an encouraging and intellectually stimulating ecosystem,” she explained. “I am extremely
fortuitous to have him as a mentor.”
Michigan Technological College is a public research university, household to additional than
seven,000 learners from fifty four countries. Established in 1885, the College features additional than
120 undergraduate and graduate diploma plans in science and know-how, engineering,
forestry, business and economics, well being professions, humanities, arithmetic, and
social sciences. Our campus in Michigan’s Higher Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway
and is just a handful of miles from Lake Exceptional.