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Lafayette student Daniel Swarr of Clifton Park, N.Y., a junior Marquis Scholar and double major in physics and mathematics, has received a Goldwater Scholarship for the 2001-02 academic year.
The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering. Winners are selected for academic merit. Swarr is among 302 honorees from the 50 United States and Puerto Rico who were chosen from 1,164 nominated sophomores and juniors. He is one of just 47 students with dual majors to receive the honor.
His career goal is to obtain an M.D. degree and doctorate in molecular biophysics and to create innovative solutions to current problems in biomedical sciences.
This marks the second consecutive year that a Lafayette student has received this honor. Matthew Patton, a computer science major from Los Alamos, N.M., received a Goldwater Scholarship last year.
“Lafayette goes out of its way from freshman orientation to graduation to make sure each student has the opportunity to do his or her best, fulfilling their personal goals,” says Swarr, a graduate of Shenendohowa High School who was invited this spring to join Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a member of Pi Mu Epsilon, the national honor society for mathematics.
“Advisers, the administration, and even fellow students are far more concerned than the norm, judging by the variety of experiences that my friends have had at other institutions, especially larger ones,” Swarr says. “In addition, it is apparent to me that the college has also been making large steps, by encouraging strong academic performance and recruiting excellent students, to become one of the top schools in the country.
“Even during my first year, I learned a great amount in my classes, received close attention from professors, and had the opportunity to participate in an excellent research project,” he adds. “I am sure by the time that I am ready to graduate, Lafayette will have prepared me for anything that I want to go on to do.”
Swarr has been an active participant in Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program, in which students collaborate closely with faculty on research projects while earning a stipend. Last spring he worked with William H. Miles, associate professor of chemistry, to develop new organic chemical reactions. The findings could help develop a synthetic approach for manufacturing a substance used in anti-cancer drugs that is in short supply.
“Despite not being a chemistry major, he did excellent research,” says Miles. “We are delighted that Dan received the Goldwater Scholarship. He’s very deserving.” Miles says Swarr is only student who ever corresponded with him about his research before starting college, adding that Swarr brought a proposed synthetic scheme with him for one of the compounds that interests Miles.
Last summer, Swarr partnered with Bradley C. Antanaitis, associate professor of physics, on EXCEL research that may yield a better understanding of certain proteins that are essential for functions that sustain life. While the research does not have a medical focus per se, its conclusions could help other researchers studying proteins for a variety of reasons. For example, by building on this knowledge, others may gain a better understanding of conditions that lead to sickle cell anemia, a genetic disorder.
Swarr is a member of the McKelvy House Scholars program, in which 19 students of high academic achievement and promise reside together in a
historic off-campus home and participate in shared intellectual and social activities. He is secretary of the Physics Club and volunteers at August
Survivors Center, Easton, and the Emergency Care Unit at Easton Hospital.
He plans to live next year in a special-interest living group called “From Our Neighborhood to Yours” in Keefe Hall. Members of the group share an interest in voluntary community service. Lafayette students conduct more than 25 programs of sustained voluntary service each year under the auspices of the College’s Landis Community Outreach Center.
Swarr teamed with Lazar Nikolic ’02 (Roswell, Ga.) and Guangxi Wang ’03 (Shanghai, China) to place among the top 14 percent of participating teams — earning the second-highest rating — in this year’s 17th annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling, an international competition sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications.
Hans Mark, chairman of the board of trustees of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation says, “Goldwater
Scholars have very impressive academic qualifications that have garnered the attention of prestigious post-graduate fellowship programs.”
Recent Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 39 Rhodes Scholarships (eight of the 32 given in the U.S. in 2000 and six in both 1998 and 1999), 32 Marshall Awards, 11 Churchill, 10 Fulbright, 30 Hughes, 93 National Science Foundation, and numerous other distinguished fellowships.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program, established by Congress in 1986, provides a continuing source of highly qualified individuals for academic study and research in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering.
Goldwater Scholarship. Daniel Swarr ’03 received a Goldwater Scholarship, the premier national undergraduate award of its type in math, science, and engineering. One of his research mentors is Bradley Antanaitis, associate professor of physics.