Maeve Janecka, an undergraduate student in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, recently earned the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for her work in science and engineering.

From an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors, 1267 natural science, engineering and mathematics students were nominated by 427 academic institutions to compete for the 2023 Goldwater scholarships. A total of 413 scholarships were awarded, with funding of $7,500 per year.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized because there were so many talented applicants in both the campus round and the national Goldwater competition,” Janecka said. “I am humbled and very grateful to join the Goldwater community. I’m hoping to use the scholarship funding to study abroad in 2024."

After graduation in August 2024, Janecka plans to pursue an MD/PhD and study endometriosis. “My career goal is to work in an academic medical center and be principal investigator of a women’s health research lab,” she said.

Janecka is currently a Petit Scholar in Professor Julie Champion’s lab, where she researches the drug delivery properties of a novel orthopedic implant material.  “Our project has shown promising results thus far, and I’m excited to continue working on it throughout the next year,” she said.

Janecka, who grew up in the Hudson Valley about an hour outside of New York City, said she is grateful to the ChBE community for its dedication to its students. “Each of my ChBE professors are amazing educators, and they make this challenging major worthwhile,” Janecka said.