Two College of Science and Engineering students receive prestigious Goldwater Scholarships

Award recognizes outstanding students pursuing research-oriented careers

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (04/03/2026) — Two College of Science and Engineering juniors in the University Honors Program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have been recognized as Goldwater Scholars by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

Biomedical engineering student Ahmed Sharara along with physics and mathematics student Jack Tavakley will receive scholarships worth up to $7,500 for the next academic year. 

This prestigious, nationally competitive scholarship is awarded annually to outstanding sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research-oriented careers in mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Ahmed Sharara

Ahmed Sharara, of Arden Hills, Minn., fell in love with the science fair in elementary school. He has been investigating research questions and engineering problems ever since. In his first semester, he joined Professor Bhairab Singh’s lab and helped to analyze cryoprotective agents that could improve the preservation of donor hearts and engineered tissues. Now, he is planning and executing a project to investigate the mechanisms of maturation in cardiomyocytes, and developing an automated tool to more quickly and accurately analyze fluorescent images of cardiomyocytes. 

He has also worked on joint research projects with Professors John Bischof and Brenda Ogle and recently published the results of a study of the evolution of sarcomeric disorganization over time in the development of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. On campus, Ahmed is a co-founder and leader of MEDIC, an organization that empowers students to design medical devices through contests and teamwork. He is similarly involved with Engineering World Health and he volunteers in the Emergency Department of Masonic Children’s Hospital. He plans to complete a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and to continue searching for answers and solving problems in his own university lab.

Jack Tavakley

Jack Tavakley, of Apple Valley, Minn., began working on electronics and programming projects for an inventors’ fair in elementary school and continued to explore and create independently as a highschooler. A conversation with physics professor, Ke Wang, led to a position in his lab, where Jack discovered graphene. He spent the year stacking and exfoliating 2D nanomaterials to create Van der Waals heterostructures which exhibited a wide range of exotic quantum phenomena. This led to contributions to articles published in Physics Review and the Journal of Physical Chemistry and confirmed his interest in experimental physics. He continues to work in the Wang lab studying electron flow through point junctions in bi-layer graphene that has potential applications in quantum computing. 

Curious to learn more about the tools that enable experimentation with nanomaterials, Tavakley spent last summer at an NSF REU at the University of Colorado working with atomic force microscopy, and he continues to work remotely with Professor Marcus Raschke’s lab there. On campus, he has worked as a learning assistant with Professor Paul Haines, and he has been recognized for his academic performance and research with a St. Cyr Scholarship from the School of Physics and Astronomy. Jack plans to complete a Ph.D. in condensed matter or AMO physics and direct a lab developing quantum devices.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Sen. Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U. S. Senate. This year 454 scholars were selected nationwide from a field of more than 1,485 students who were nominated by their colleges and universities.

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities has now had 77 students recognized as Goldwater Scholars since the creation of the program in 1989.

For more information on how to apply for this scholarship in the future, visit the University of Minnesota’s Office of National and International Scholarships website.