A Texas State University undergraduate student has been awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, one of the nation’s most prestigious awards for future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.
Dillon Gee, a biology major and honors student, was among 441 recipients nationwide to be awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship for the 2025-2026 academic year. From an estimated pool of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors, 1,350 science, engineering, and mathematics students were nominated by 445 academic institutions to compete for the 2025 Goldwater scholarships.
Gee is a rising undergraduate senior majoring in biology with minors in pre-medical studies, biochemistry, and engineering. He is currently a Biomedical Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow at UT Southwestern Medical Center and spends his time during the academic year working in biomaterials research through the National Science Foundation (NSF) Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) under Tania Betancourt, Ph.D.
Gee’s research has been recognized through TXST’s Undergraduate Research Fellowship (URF), and he recently presented his independent research project, “Degradable Therapeutic Hydrogel System that Activates Under Oxidative Stress.”
Goldwater Scholars have gone on to win an impressive array of prestigious awards, becoming National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellows, NSF Graduate Research Fellows, Hertz Fellows, DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellows, Astronaut Scholars, Churchill Scholars, Marshall Scholars, and Rhodes Scholars.
The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established by Public Law 99-661 on November 14, 1986. The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater was designed to identify, encourage, and financially support outstanding undergraduates interested in pursuing research careers in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics. The Goldwater Scholarship is the preeminent undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
Undergraduates interested in applying for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship for Excellence should email Cathlin Noonan, TXST’s Goldwater campus representative and external funding coordinator at the IDEA Center.