For the second consecutive 12 months, a Michigan Tech college student has been awarded a single of the
nation’s most prestigious undergraduate exploration scholarships.
Kaylee Meyers, a third-12 months college student at Michigan Technological University, has obtained
a single of the nation’s maximum accolades for faculty undergraduates. The biomedical engineering key from Essexville, Michigan is the twelfth Michigan Tech college student to obtain the
prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
Proven 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 faculty sophomores and juniors. The awards
are centered on tutorial merit, exploration practical experience and intent to go after a vocation in
science, engineering or mathematics.
As portion of the assortment approach, colleges nominate up to 4 learners who intend
to go after a vocation in exploration and have at least a 3. GPA. As a single of 396 recipients
selected from around five,000 nominees, Meyers will obtain a monetary award
to be made use of on expenses like tuition, publications, and place and board for her senior 12 months.
Assisting to Mend
Meyers developed a “passion for engineering” although involved with Very first Robotics in
superior university. “But I also actually required to function in the health-related area, so biomedical
engineering was the perfect mix of the two,” she stated.
Meyers’ exploration focuses on engineered biomaterials. “More precisely, injectable
biomaterials that could be made use of to speed up wound therapeutic in wounded tendons,” she
stated.
“Kaylee’s function has led to novel information pertaining to how injectable biomaterials can be
made use of to control cell and molecular mechanisms involved in tendon repair,” stated Meyer’s
exploration advisor, Rupak Rajachar, a principal lecturer in biomedical engineering at
Michigan Tech. “These results are the basis for a single of two initially-creator manuscripts
she is at present crafting.”
Meyers’ second manuscript includes the effects of her imaginative efforts to support construct
a table-prime ultrasound system for use in focused drug shipping from biomaterials.
Meyers’ and Rajachar’s exploration was lately awarded a second grant from the Countrywide
Institutes of Health (NIH) to function on incorporating concentrated ultrasound into the exploration
as a result of a collaborative job with Michigan Tech alumnus Eli Vlaisavljevich, a earlier
Goldwater Scholarship recipient, member of the Engineered Biomaterials Lab local community
and present school at Virginia Tech.
In addition to the NIH grant and Goldwater Scholarship, Meyers’ exploration has obtained
assistance from the Portage Health Foundation and the Charles Steger Global Internship
Award from the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. She stated this kind of funding for undergraduate
exploration is vital.
“I feel outdoors funding is vital for the undergraduate exploration we do in the
lab, as it allows us to function on resolving actually intriguing engineering problems,”
she stated.
An Early Commence
Meyers’ Michigan Tech journey started at the University’s Summer Youth Application (SYP).
When she initially set foot on campus in 2016, she could not foresee the path she would
just take, but she realized from the start she was at a particular location.
“The summer months following my junior 12 months of superior university, I attended MTU’s Ladies in Engineering
Application,” Meyers stated. “I figured out a ton about engineering and experienced a chance to explore
the campus and surrounding area.”
A self-explained “avid outdoorswoman” who enjoys to hike, bike, ski, trail run and
kayak, she realized that Tech’s teachers and area would be a good match. A couple months
later on, she discovered that the “good fit” prolonged to the classroom and lab as perfectly.
“As a senior, I attended MTU Preview Day, exactly where I achieved my exploration advisor, Dr. Rajachar,
and his Engineered Biomaterials Lab team,” she stated. “Through them, I figured out about
the shut campus local community and what undergraduate exploration was like at Tech. It bolstered
my selection to occur right here.”
Continuing a Happy Custom
Meyers is Michigan Tech’s fourth Goldwater Scholarship recipient in the earlier 5
decades and the second consecutive MTU college student to be so honored. 3rd-12 months biological
sciences key Tessa Steenwinkel received the scholarship very last 12 months.
Meyer’s very long-time period objectives are to make her PhD in biomedical engineering and eventually
run a exploration lab of her very own as a principal investigator and university professor.
“I believe Tech is quite good at promoting students from all backgrounds in STEM fields,
specially as a result of youth outreach and our supportive campus local community.”
Rajachar stated it is interesting to see the prospective broader effect Meyers can have both of those
as a graduate college student and upcoming mentor to the subsequent era of learners in STEM
fields.
“She acknowledges that the finest gift any scientific mentor can give is their
time and an setting that empowers youthful learners to believe in challenging function and their
very own means to resolve problems,” he stated.
Meyers is in extraordinary corporation as the fifth Michigan Tech biomedical engineering
key to obtain a Goldwater Scholarship, a lot more than any other self-discipline at the University,
and the third to be mentored by Rajachar.
Vlaisavljevich, who received the scholarship in 2009, is an assistant professor of biomedical
engineering at Virginia Tech and has established a laboratory acquiring therapeutic
ultrasound equipment. 2012 scholarship recipient Hal Holmes is a lead engineer at Conservation
X Labs, acquiring chopping-edge genetic tests know-how for conservation.
Rajachar is confident Meyers will are living up to the superior typical set by her predecessors.
“I genuinely believe that Kaylee can meet up with or exceed the accomplishment of any previous college student
from my lab,” he stated. “I highlight their achievements hence far as scientists not
only to convey the importance of the Goldwater and the toughness of my belief in
Kaylee, but a lot more importantly to recognize that each and every of them also serves as a mentor
to Kaylee, assisting her as she operates diligently towards assembly what I believe is her
excellent guarantee as a scientist and engineer.”
When the time will come for Meyers to mentor learners of her very own, she’ll mirror on her
personal purpose design. “I want to thank my exploration advisor, Dr. Rajachar, for delivering
me and numerous other learners the possibility to get involved in undergraduate exploration
in an encouraging and intellectually stimulating setting,” she stated. “I am quite
privileged to have him as a mentor.”
Michigan Technological University is a general public exploration university, household to a lot more than
seven,000 learners from fifty four international locations. Established in 1885, the University delivers a lot more than
one hundred twenty undergraduate and graduate diploma programs in science and know-how, engineering,
forestry, enterprise and economics, wellbeing professions, humanities, mathematics, and
social sciences. Our campus in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway
and is just a couple miles from Lake Remarkable.
