Three West Virginia University students have been awarded the coveted Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, engineering and natural sciences which supports students with strong commitments to research careers.

Juniors Henry Coyle, an aerospace engineering major from Charlottesville, Virginia, Corinne Hazel, an environmental microbiology major from Delaware, Ohio, and Grady King, a data science major from Morgantown, will each receive $7,500 annually for up to two years of undergraduate study to further their research. All three are members of the Honors College.

“We are so proud to have three Goldwater Scholarship recipients at WVU who are a testament to the quality education we provide our students,” Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Paul Kreider said. “Our investments in undergraduate research opportunities across the WVU System lead to these kinds of student success stories with wide-ranging benefits. Congratulations to these students and to our nationally recognized Office of Undergraduate Research.”

Henry Coyle

Although he’d always felt drawn to the field of engineering, Coyle’s passion for flight was born his senior year of high school while building a drone from scratch with classmates.

“It was the most enthralling experience,” he said. “We discovered this whole world of avionics and aerospace engineering and I just ran with it.”

That hands-on experience led Coyle to WVU where the strong aerospace engineering program at the WVU Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources has provided ample opportunities for him to continue exploration of flight and space.

As a sophomore, Coyle joined the WVU Microgravity Research Team, which promotes aerospace investigations in a reduced gravity environment and is offered as a technical elective to some of the best performing mechanical and aerospace engineering undergraduate students.

Guided by mentor Patrick Browning, teaching associate professor in mechanical, materials and aerospace engineering, Coyle was tasked with developing an unmanned aerial vehicle that could replicate microgravity conditions.

With support from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium and the WVU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, he designed and built a drone capable of executing precise flight plans to mimic parabolic microgravity flights.

“This project could enable faster and cheaper material science testing here on Earth, supporting the development of space habitats,” Coyle said. “It gave me the chance to dive deep into something technical and meaningful and really solidified my desire to do research for the rest of my life.”

He said he hopes to pursue a doctorate in spaceflight systems and work on autonomous missions, potentially in partnership with NASA or academic research labs.

“I want to help push the boundaries of what we can do in space,” Coyle said.

Corinne Hazel

Hazel’s connection to the natural world inspired her to pursue a major and research that allow her to use science skills to protect the environment.

“I grew up spending a lot of time in parks,” she said. “I want to protect those spaces so others can have the same opportunities and experiences. Studying science deepened my appreciation for the environmental services we take for granted, like getting to have clean water. I think it’s important to protect these spaces that we rely on so much.”

Hazel connected with Daniel Panaccione, professor of plant and soil sciences in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, through the Research Apprenticeship Program, which provides first- and second-year students with mentored research and creative activities, and began studying ergot alkaloids.

A group of fungal toxins sometimes found in plants, ergot alkaloids have both pharmaceutical and ecological significance.

Broadly, Hazel’s research focuses on the symbiotic relationship between ergot alkaloids and Ipomoea tricolor, a popular variety of morning glory plant. Her most recent project investigates how these mycotoxins can help protect the plant from predatory nematodes.

“I developed a hydroponic system to grow these plants in test tubes and worked with the Lane Innovation Hub to create a 3D printed insert to support the seed while it germinated and grew directly in the nutrient solution,” Hazel said. “I was able to extract ergot alkaloids from the solution and identified they were at quantities that would inhibit nematode reproduction.”

She’s been fortunate to present her research at different conferences, including the Mycological Society of America meeting in Ontario and the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Pittsburgh.

Hazel said she hopes to pursue a doctorate in microbiology and eventually work on environmental issues that impact ecosystems and public health.

Grady King

As a WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences student, King utilizes his love for data and computer sciences to better understand some of society’s most pressing health challenges.

“A lot of modern medical discoveries have had a computational component,” he said. “Data science allows us to extract insights from all kinds of data and analyze it in a way that we can improve how we conduct medicine.”

Also introduced to research through the Research Apprenticeship Program, King’s first project alongside his mentor, Srinivas Palanki, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, investigated whether the Affordable Care Act led to a reduction in preventable heart disease deaths.

“There are very specific deaths that are considered preventable because if you have coverage and get treatment, you have a very low chance of dying,” he explained. “Twenty U.S. states did not allow Medicaid expansions until 2018 or later, which we found cost about 19,000 preventable deaths. Through this research, we found that expanding public health insurance coverage is important for saving lives.”

The results were published in Economic Affairs earlier this year.

In addition to his research on preventable heart disease deaths, King worked at the WVU Cancer Institute to create a database of FDA-approved drugs that could be used to treat non-small cell lung cancer.

“Generally, there aren’t enough drugs to treat that type of lung cancer, so the idea is to reposition drugs that are already approved by the FDA and apply them to a new disease,” he said. “I worked to create a central place to learn about potential drug candidates for medical professionals and researchers.”

Currently, King is working in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine to genetically analyze West Virginian nasal swab samples to support viral public health monitoring.

He said he hopes to pursue a doctorate in medical data science and influence public health policy through research on the effect of ultra-processed foods and the human microbiome on health.