Sarah Auffret, sauffret@asu.edu
(480) 965-6991
April 14, 2005

ASU students claim Goldwater, Udall scholarships

ASU continues to cut a wide swath in the world of prestigious national scholarships, with the news that two students have won a Goldwater Scholarship and a Udall Scholarship.

Jason Rugolo of Scottsdale, a junior in physics who is doing research on nanoporous metals in a mechanical engineering lab, will receive a Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s highest award for undergraduates who are planning careers in scientific research. The $7,500 award is given on academic merit and the extent and sophistication of the student’s undergraduate research.

Taylor Jackson, a junior in biology and society who came to ASU as a National Merit Scholar from Hattiesburg, Miss., has been named a Udall Scholar for his service and research in the area of environmental policy.

Jackson, the founder of Students for Environmental Action at ASU, will receive a $5,000 award.

An impressive 28 ASU students have won Goldwater Scholarships over the past 12 years, putting ASU in the top 20 universities in the nation. ASU also is in the top 10 universities for Udall Scholarships. ASU students have won 15 Udalls since the award was established in 1995.

Rugolo, a graduate of Brophy Prep High School, came to ASU on a Provost Scholarship and began working in the lab of Karl Sieradzki, ASU mechanical engineering professor, as a first-semester freshman. That crucial early start helped him progress to sophisticated research on technologies that can be applied to heart stents, biosensors and fuel cell substrates.

Sieradzki says he was impressed with Rugolo’s intellectual curiosity and his level of maturity as an 18-year-old, and he has continued to be amazed at Rugolo’s questioning nature and his high-level understanding of science.

“Jason is one of the most highly motivated and gifted students that has ever worked in my laboratory,” Sieradzki says. “This includes my many years working with undergraduates here at ASU as well as Johns Hopkins University.

“I’ve been amazed with Jason’s ability to almost casually digest extremely difficult concepts in physics. There are few people at Jason’s career stage with his potential, level of desire or maturity. He is a brilliant student.”

Jackson is an adventurer who spent several weeks last summer in Malaysian Borneo, living in a bamboo hut and writing a low-impact ecotourism development plan for SOS Rhino, a non-governmental agency that works to protect the Sumatran rhinos. He has organized an Earth Day celebration and a Local to Global Justice Teach-in.

Jackson also has been awarded a project grant from the ASU Biology and Society program to study the effects of ecotourism in the Bay Islands, Honduras, according to Jane Maienschein, Regents Professor and director of the Center for Biology and Society.

“I’m delighted that Taylor has won the Udall, because he is exactly the type of person we want in charge of public policy: someone with a sense of humility and ethical concern about doing the right thing,” Maienschein says. “ASU’s Udall Scholars over recent years have been this sort of students. They are outstanding scholars with the highest academic standards and achievements, and they are also wonderful young men and women who care.”

Rugolo and Jackson are enrolled in the Barrett Honors College and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Two students also received honorable mentions: Kayvon Daie of Fountain Hills for the Goldwater and Aaron Begay of San Carlos, Ariz., for the Udall.

Auffret, with Marketing & Strategic Communications, can be reached at (480) 965-6991 or (sauffret@asu.edu).