Two Longwood juniors, Ryan Urban ’26 and Nicholas Duellman ’26, both already accomplished undergraduate researchers, are Longwood’s 2025 nominees for the prestigious national Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier scholarship for science, technology, engineering, and math undergraduates in the country. It awards students who plan to pursue a career in scientific research and inquiry.
The scholarship is one of the most competitive in the nation for students pursuing graduate degrees in science, engineering, and mathematics. Last year, the Goldwater Foundation awarded just more than 400 scholarships out of an applicant pool that topped 5,000.
I consider Ryan one of the strongest undergraduate students I have worked with, especially when it comes to drive and independence in pursuing research.
Dr. Sophia Economou, director of the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering Tweet This
Urban is a physics major with a 3.99 grade point average who plans to pursue a doctorate in quantum mechanics and push forward in the rapidly developing field that has vast implications on industrial systems, information technology, and a host of other applications. This past summer, he joined a research team at the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering, led by Dr. Sophia Economou.
“I consider Ryan one of the strongest undergraduate students I have worked with, especially when it comes to drive and independence in pursuing research,” said Economou in a recommendation letter to the Goldwater selection committee. “I believe he will make a strong member of the quantum information science community.”
This summer, Urban will continue his research work at the University of Michigan’s CERN summer program in Geneva, Switzerland, home of the Large Hadron Collider, where he will participate in the CERN Summer Student Lecture Program and join active researchers at CERN in their work on quantum mechanics.
In just one semester working on my research team, Nicholas has helped the project progress further than I thought possible.
Jameson Hinkle, lecturer of biology Tweet This
Duellman is a junior environmental biology major with a 3.73 grade point average who plans to pursue a doctorate and research career in a newly developing area of species management using environmental DNA to reintroduce endangered or threatened species into habitats where they might thrive. Using this method, Duellman and his research mentor, Longwood lecturer of biology Jameson Hinkle, studied the extent of the habitable range and nature of the gene flow of freshwater mussels along the James River with the aim of a successful reintroduction of those species to the river in the future.
“In just one semester working on my research team, Nicholas has helped the project progress further than I thought possible," said Hinkle in his recommendation letter to the committee, “leading the effort to complete our computational architecture ahead of sample and data collection and future molecular testing. Nicholas is a natural researcher, and I count myself lucky to have found a student with his ability to learn quickly in my first year as a professor.”
Duellman plans to pursue graduate work at George Mason University in partnership with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
Longwood has had two Goldwater Scholars named in its history. Antonio Harvey ’25 was named a 2023 scholar, and Dr. Tom Pettus ’90, a chemistry professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, won the award in 1989.
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