UF student earns Goldwater Scholarship

The Goldwater Foundation has announced that University of Florida student and John V. Lombardi Scholar Mihael Cudic has been selected for a Goldwater Scholarship. UF sophomore Samuel Swanson was also recognized by the Goldwater Foundation with an Honorable Mention. The Goldwater Scholarship was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering, and to foster excellence in those fields.

This year 1,286 students from 470 institutions were nominated for a Goldwater scholarship. The foundation named 240 new Goldwater Scholars and identified 307 students as Honorable Mentions.

Cudic is junior majoring in electrical engineering and plans to earn a Ph.D. in computational neuro-engineering in order to pursue research in artificial intelligence and eventually teach at the university level. He has spent the past two summers studying differential mathematical modeling at the University of Cambridge, UK, and works in the Computational Neuroengineering Laboratory at UF.

In awarding scholarships, the Foundation considers the nominee's field of study and career objectives and the extent to which the individual has the commitment and potential to make a significant contribution to his or her field. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses for tuition, fees, books, and room and board, up to a maximum of $7,500 annually. Students must receive a nomination from their institution in order to apply for the Goldwater scholarship.  Each application requires an essay discussing a significant issue or problem in their field of study that is of particular interest to them. 

In 2016, UF student Tiffany Paul (physics major) won a Goldwater Scholarship; in 2015, UF students Colin Defant (mathematics major) and Lauren McCarthy (chemistry major) also won Goldwater Scholarships. All recent UF Goldwater scholarship winners have been members of the UF Honors Program.