2020 Goldwater Scholarships

Alec Cao (CCS Physics ‘21) and Max Prichard (CCS Physics ‘21) receive 2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarships

Each year some 5000 college sophomores and juniors majoring in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering fields apply for approximately 400 Barry Goldwater scholarships. This year, three UC Santa Barbara students, two of which are in CCS Physics, received 2020 Goldwater Scholarship Awards. These students, who displayed “intellectual intensity” and “potential for a significant future contribution to research” included Alec Cao (CCS Physics ‘21) and Max Prichard (CCS Physics ‘21) as well as College of Letters & Science Biology student Veronica Hsu (‘21). Last year, a CCS Physics and a CCS Biology student received the scholarship.

Both Cao and Prichard additionally received CCS Summer Undergraduate Fellowships for the 2019 summer. The summer fellowships, supported by The Create Fund, allowed Cao and Prichard to dedicate their summers to full-time research, which they presented at the third annual RACA-Con in November 2019. Both students are members of Professor David Weld’s Lab in the Department of Physics. The Weld Lab researches ultracold atoms and explores a wide variety of quantum mechanical phenomena. In addition, Cao recently published a paper on “Probing Nonexponential Decay in Floquet-Boch Bands” as a first author.

Looking to the future, Alec Cao wishes to obtain a Ph.D. in Physics and investigate non-equilibrium quantum dynamics utilizing ultracold atoms. Max Prichard aims to get a Ph.D. in Experimental Physics and perform research in atomic, molecular, and optical physics with a professorship.