Taylor Bias, a junior at Ball State University, has been awarded a Barry Goldwater incentive, a prominent incentive for undergraduates interested in STEM research.
Ms. Bias, an Honors College student from Elkhart, Ind., majors in biochemistry with minors in biology and studio art. After earning her doctorate in biochemistry, she hopes to pursue a career in protein-ligand interacting molecular chemistry research and university teaching.
Ms. Bias is the 15th Ball State student to receive the Goldwater Scholarship, joining nine others who received honorable mention. She was one of 438 sophomores and juniors chosen this year from a pool of 1,353 individuals nominated by colleges and universities around the country.
“I want to advance knowledge of protein-ligand interactions to help address health concerns, such as immune responses to infection and disease—and I want to do so as a faculty member engaged in both teaching and research,” Bias said in a statement. “My ambition is to work as part of a student-scientist team to further scientific knowledge. In doing so, I hope to guide students in selecting what they want from their own research adventures, and to provide them with the same support that I am now receiving.”
Ms. Bias joined Dr. Mary Konkle’s lab as a research assistant in January 2022, initially through Ball State’s Teacher-Scholar Program. Konkle is an associate professor of chemistry. She also spent the summer doing research at Roche Diagnostics in Indianapolis. Her other interests include active participation in Indiana LSAMP (an NSF-funded program) and Ball State’s Student Affiliates of the American Chemistry Society. She is also a teaching assistant in organic chemistry.
Ms. Bias has given multiple speeches regarding her research at the national, state, and college levels, and she was the fifth author of a 2022 article published in ACS Chemical Biology. That same year, she received a national ACS (American Chemical Society) Scholarship, and at the 2023 National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers conference, she earned first place for a poster presentation.
Congress established the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation in 1986 as a living legacy to Sen. Barry Goldwater’s lifelong achievements. The Goldwater Foundation helps ensuring that the United States produces the amount of highly trained professionals needed in these key sectors by awarding scholarships to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in STEM fields. For more information, visit goldwaterscholarship.gov.