Two Engineering Students Win Prestigious Goldwater Scholarships
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has three juniors who were selected to receive the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship out of more than 1,000 nominees nationwide. KU’s 2026 Barry M. Goldwater Scholars are Tatum Aikin, Arthur Benson and Carter Gray.
Congress established the Goldwater scholarship program in 1986 in tribute to the retired U.S. senator from Arizona and to ensure a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers. The only students eligible for nomination are sophomore- and junior-level students with outstanding academic records, significant research experience and high potential for careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.
This year, the Goldwater Board of Trustees awarded 454 scholarships to students across the United States. The scholarships cover eligible expenses for undergraduate tuition, fees, books and room and board, up to $7,500 annually.
Tatum Aikin
Tatum Aikin, from Westwood, is the daughter of Abby Parker and Brandon Aikin and a graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School. She plans to pursue a doctorate in immunology and conduct research pertaining to autoimmune diseases and sex-based differences in immunological conditions. She has conducted research on Type I diabetes in the Markiewicz Lab at KU Medical Center as a K-INBRE Summer Scholar. She has also received and Undergraduate Research Award and was chosen to be a K-INBRE Summer Scholar once more for the Orozco Lab at KU, where she is investigating how an autoimmunity-associated gene variant impacts the function of the immune cell macrophages, examining if altered macrophage function could change other aspects of the immune response in specific disease contexts. She has presented this work at the 2025 Autumn Immunology Conference, earning an Undergraduate Award for her abstract “Trends in Immunology,” and is additionally presenting this work at the 2026 K-INBRE Symposium. She has also received an additional Undergraduate Research Award to continue this work and has been recognized as a KU Chancellor’s Merit Scholar.
Arthur Benson
Arthur Benson, from Lawrence, is the son of David and Nadya Benson and a graduate of Lawrence Free State High School. He is majoring in chemical engineering with a concentration in data science and a minor in music. Following graduation, he plans to pursue a doctorate in chemical engineering focused on hybrid energy storage systems. Benson began his research with a project on refrigerant flammability testing under the supervision of KU faculty member Mark Shiflett. He was then selected for a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of California, Irvine, where he investigated an induction-heated process for sustainable hydrogen production under the guidance of Erdem Sasmaz. Currently, he is conducting molecular modeling of high-energy-density batteries under the mentorship of KU faculty member Yiling Nan.
Benson’s research has been featured in two peer-reviewed publications, and he has presented at both regional and national American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) student conferences. He has received an Undergraduate Research Award for his work and was named the Outstanding Sophomore in Chemical Engineering for his academic performance. Benson has held several leadership positions at KU, including treasurer of the AIChE student chapter, student liaison for the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, honors seminar assistant and president of the chess club. As a member of the Madison and Lila Self Engineering Leadership Fellows Program, he has served as a community service project manager and a co-lead for the High School Design chemical engineering competition.
Carter Gray
Carter Gray, from Olathe, is the son of John and Maureen Gray and a graduate of Olathe North High School. Gray is a sophomore majoring in applied computing with a focus in chemistry. He plans to pursue a doctorate in biophysics and work on cutting-edge research to understand protein mutations and their applications in personalized medicine. Carter started his research journey during high school in the Swint-Kruse lab at KU Medical Center, where he worked on developing a set of novel transcription factors for synthetic biology. Recently, he published this work in a first-author manuscript at the journal PLOS One. Motivated to continue his work in the Swint-Kruse lab, Carter spearheaded a collaboration with the Egan lab at KU Lawrence. During this time, Carter was named a 2025-2026 Data Science scholar from K-INBRE, funding his second project that works to identify patient-derived mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 main protease to further understand pathogen evolution. Carter has presented his research at the 2024 and 2025 Gibbs biothermodynamics conferences in Carbondale, Illinois, and was invited as a speaker at the 2026 K-INBRE annual symposium. Carter was also recently named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Cech Fellow. During this fellowship, he will spend his summer researching the structural dynamics of membrane transporter proteins in the Boudker Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, New York. Outside of research, Carter is a University Scholar, a SELF Engineering Leadership Fellow, a member of the KU Marching Jayhawks, co-founder of the Kansas Research Collective, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a University Honors Program student. He has also received an Undergraduate Research Award and the KU Chancellor Scholarship for academic merit.