Vamsi Singu, a former participant in the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology’s Summer Training in Anesthesia Research (STAR) program, has been awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious undergraduate research award in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.
Singu, now a rising senior and Early Medical School Acceptance Program scholar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, first joined the lab of Gurudutt Pendyala, PhD, Robert Lieberman Endowed Professor of Anesthesiology, through the STAR program in 2023. Over the past two and a half years, he has made substantial contributions to ongoing research, co-authoring two publications, including a manuscript currently under review for which he serves as first author.
The Goldwater Scholarship, established by Congress in 1986, is designed to identify and financially support outstanding undergraduates with the potential to become the next generation of research leaders Scholars are selected from an estimated pool of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nominated by academic institutions across the country.
Singu plans to pursue an MD/PhD at Johns Hopkins University with a focus in neuroscience, specifically researching novel therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration.
“This national recognition speaks to his exceptional talent, dedication and promise as a future physician-scientist,” Dr. Pendyala said. “We’re very proud of him and excited to see what lies ahead.”