Getting SMART
Marshwood’s Katherine Austin is one of Six UNH Students Selected
Six UNH students make up the largest one-year cohort of DoD scholarship recipients
Monday, April 18, 2022
Six University of New Hampshire students have been awarded Science, Math and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarships from the Department of Defense, the largest number of recipients ever from UNH in a single cycle.
Rebekah Adams ’24, Katherine Austin ’23, Josh Beaulieu ’24, Olivia Morel ’25, Joy O’Brien ’23G and Cameron Wagner ’23G make up the cohort of honorees from UNH this spring.
SMART scholarships are awarded to undergraduate or graduate students in STEM-related fields and include full tuition and related fees, a $25,000 to $38,000 annual stipend, summer research internships and employment placement within the Department of Defense after graduation.
“I’m pleased that we have recipients from COLSA, COLA and CEPS who come from a variety of majors and represent both our undergraduate community and the graduate school,” says Jeanne Sokolowski, director of the Office of National Fellowships at UNH. “As always, UNH students’ success in the SMART competition is a testament to our stellar STEM education, strong mentoring by STEM faculty and research support through the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research.”
Katherine Austin, a bioengineering major from South Berwick, Maine, earned a placement at the Army Public Health Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. She was drawn to the facility because of the focus on public health, and environmental monitoring in particular, as her current research includes work with electrochemical biosensors.
“I pursued this site because they focus on public health, which will allow me to best be able to help the most people,” Austin says. “This gave me the opportunity to take my passion and apply it to a problem that can make others’ lives better.” Austin is also interested in science communication and interdisciplinary science and was pleased to see that the center is working to develop both. She said she has already had “some great conversations with current employees” about those topics.
Austin is involved in the Mask and Dagger Society, the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE), Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and is co-president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She intends to pursue graduate school after completing her undergraduate work at UNH.