Charlie is Hampden-Sydney’s fifth Goldwater Scholar in history and fourth in the last six years. This also marks the second year in a row that an H-SC student has received the prestigious award.
In all, 496 Goldwater Scholars were chosen this year from a national field of candidates. Charlie is one of just 19 students from the Commonwealth to be named a Goldwater Scholar and one of only two Virginia recipients to hail from a small liberal arts college.
Professor Cristine Varholy, the College’s director of fellowship advising, attributes H-SC’s recent Goldwater success to the combination of research opportunities and liberal arts training that science students receive at Hampden-Sydney. “As applicants, our students are able to write persuasively about their dedication to research because they have actually done hands-on research in Gilmer Hall,” says Varholy. “With their liberal arts background and rhetoric training, they also possess a breadth of academic knowledge and writing skills that make them attractive candidates.”
The Goldwater Scholarship grants Charlie up to $7,500 to support his research during his senior year at Hampden-Sydney. He plans to work with Professor Nick Deifel on a chemical synthesis project, in which he will explore the catalytic properties of a novel heterometallic asymmetric Schiff base ligand complex. Work of this nature has potential applications in industrial chemical processes by reducing costs of making the materials needed for everyday items from pharmaceuticals to plastics.
It will be Charlie’s fifth student research project over four years at Hampden-Sydney; in fact, he will have performed independent research under every member of the chemistry department by the time he graduates next May. Deifel calls Charlie the most curious student he has ever taught. “Since his freshman year, Charlie has clearly shown that he loves learning for the sake of it, which is why he was chosen to do research so early in his academic career,” Deifel explains. “His work as both a research student and instrument technician over the past few years has been impeccable.”
In addition to Deifel’s guidance in the articulation and research of his project, Charlie was assisted in the application process by Professors Kristian Hargadon ’01, Herb Sipe, Trey Thurman, and Varholy, as well as Stephanie Joynes, director of the Ferguson Career Center. Charlie is appreciative of all the support he received from across campus. “The entire interview board was so helpful,” he says. “I’m especially thankful to Dr. Varholy, who orchestrated my application start to finish—Hampden-Sydney owes much of our Goldwater success to her diligence and expertise—and Dr. Deifel and Dr. Paul Mueller, who pushed me to apply for the honor in the first place.”