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Clarkson University Junior Named 2021 Goldwater Scholar

Potsdam, NY (04/06/2021) — Brendan Barrow, a junior majoring in physics at Clarkson University, has been named a recipient of the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Barrow is one of only 410 students from the United States to receive the award.

Barrow, of Ballston Lake, N.Y. plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physics with a potential concentration in materials science. He has had a 4.0 GPA his entire collegiate career and has been a Presidential Scholar each semester at Clarkson. He earned the Ledyard H. Pfund Presidential Achievement Scholarship and the Clarkson Chemistry Department's Dr. George L. Jones Jr. Memorial Scholarship Award in 2020. As a Goldwater Scholar, Barrow will receive a one-year scholarship that will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.

Barrow has been mentored by and conducted research with assistant physics professor Dr. Dhara Trivedi since his arrival at Clarkson. In Dr. Trivedi's group, his research is in the area of plasmonics, to understand the enhancement mechanism in the surface enhanced Raman scattering.

Brendan is the first author on a published book chapter reviewing dynamics at nanoscale interfaces and a co-author of a journal article published with Dr. Trivedi in the Journal of Chemical Physics covering their recent work studying Raman spectroscopy. He is Clarkson's ambassador to the American Physical Society (APS) and, through his role, he has promoted interconnectivity between physics majors and advertised physics to a wider audience.

Barrow aims to improve upon the storage capacity and energy transfer efficiency of photovoltaic and photocatalytic devices by creating better materials and methods at the nanoscale level.

This is the 22nd consecutive year a Clarkson student has received a Goldwater Scholarship. Barrow is the 45th Clarkson University student to receive this highly coveted award since it was first given in 1989.

Named in honor of the late United States Senator from Arizona and 1964 Republican presidential candidate, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship was designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

This year's Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities nationwide. With the 2021 awards, this brings the number of scholarships awarded since 1989 by the Goldwater Foundation to 9457.

As a private, national research university, Clarkson is a leader in technological education and sustainable economic development through teaching, scholarship, research and innovation. We ignite personal connections across academic fields and industries to create the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and intellectual curiosity needed to innovate world-relevant solutions and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. With its main campus located in Potsdam, N.Y., and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region, Beacon, N.Y., and New York City, Clarkson educates 4,300 students across 95 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, the arts, education, sciences and health professions. Our alumni earn salaries that are among the top 2.5% in the nation and realize accelerated career growth. One in five already leads as a CEO, senior executive or owner of a company.

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