Current Scholars
ARCS Foundation Pittsburgh is honored to present awards to outstanding scholars chosen by the scholar selection committee at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh. A Pittsburgh Chapter ARCS Scholar receives $15,000 in support, payable over three years at $5,000 per year, or until the completion of his or her doctoral degree, whichever comes sooner, provided the scholar maintains established criteria for continuation.
The Jeanne B. and Richard F. Berdik ARCS Pittsburgh Endowed Award
Carnegie Mellon University
School of Computer Science, Department of Machine Learning
Personal: In my free time, I enjoy playing tennis and lifting.
Research: I am interested in building machine learning models that allow robots to adapt their behavior to a wide range of unfamiliar situations. I hope to scale up current approaches to robot learning, so that intelligent agents can achieve stronger generalization ability and be more reliably deployed in the real world.
Research: My research interests involve elucidating the communication between the immune and enteric nervous system and how both contribute to promote protection against gastrointestinal pathogens. The findings of my research have the potential to enhance oral vaccine designs leading to better protection in children from low- and middle-income countries.
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
University of Pittsburgh
Swanson School of Engineering, Bioengineering Department
Personal: In my free time, I like to skateboard and work on creative projects to help grow the community of non-traditional skateboarders in Pittsburgh.
Research: My research focuses on the development of neural interfaces that allow us to send and receive signals to and from the brain. I aim to develop novel tools to allow us to directly observe and understand the biological phenomenon occurring at the tissue-device interface.
Personal: In my free time, I enjoy playing my violin named Galileo as well as painting using watercolors.
Mellon College of Science, Biological Sciences Department
Research: Cytoskeletal rearrangement and nuclear repositioning in developing egg chambers of flies.
Personal: In my free time, I enjoy gardening, painting, and playing the violin. I also love to explore parks and spend time in nature.
Research: My undergraduate research project involved reconstructing marine to freshwater transitions in modern, tropical lake sediment using geochemical proxies. The results showed a possible connection to early human activity in the study region, which made me interested in studying and connecting paleoclimate records to modern climate change and anthropogenic influence in my graduate research. In a warming world where freshwater resources are vital, reconstructions of paleoclimate and early human influence from biogeochemical alterations of lake sediment can provide insight into how climate change can impact society and vice versa.
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
University of Pittsburgh
School of Nursing
Research: The impact that gut microbiota have on psychoneurological symptoms women experience during breast cancer treatment
The Fleischner-ARCS Pittsburgh Member Endowed Award
Carnegie Mellow University
College of Engineering, Material Science and Engineering
Research: Computational modeling of Polymer Systems
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
Carnegie Mellon University
School of Computer Science, Softward Engineering
Research: Data visualization and data analysis focusing on improving visual communication in learning materials.
The ARCS Pittsburgh Scholar Endowment in Memory of Jack and Gen Esgar
Carnegie Mellon University
Mellon College of Science, Mathematical Sciences
Research: High dimensional probability distributions and complex geometry.
The Dunn Pittsburgh Chapter Award
University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology
Research: Undertsanding interactions between disease-causing organisms and immune response
The Carroll-Pittsburgh Chapter Award
The University of Pittsburgh
Swanson School of Engineering, Bioengineering
Research Interest: Developing and applying both experimental and computational methods to solve cardiovascular/vascular health problems, focused on the computational optimization of a compliance matched tissue engineered vascular graft (TEVG)
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
Carnegie Mellon University
Department of Computer
Science, Robotics Institute
Research Interest: The development of adaptable centimeter-scale robots for search and rescue applications and their multi-agent collaboration
The John and Missy Unkovic ARCS Pittsburgh Chapter Scholar Award Endowment
Carnegie Mellon University
Mellon College of Science, Physics
Research Interest: Theoretical cosmology and gravitational waves, specifically in the purview of theories of massive gravity and how we may constrain the gravitational mass using pulsar timing arrays.
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
Carnegie Mellon University
Mellon College of Science, Chemistry
Research Interest: Chemical transformations happening inside of atmospheric aerosol particles and their impacts on the climate and environment using Raman spectroscopy and mass spectro-scopy.
The Beaukema-Carrow/Kyper-Kemerer–Wainwright-ARCS Foundation Pittsburgh Scholar Award Endowment
University of Pittsburgh
Swanson School of Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interest: Microbial communities present in drinking water distribution systems and their impact on public health.
The Heppner-Verghis Named Award
Carnegie Mellon University
College of Engineering, Bioengineering
Research Interest: Growth and motion-preserving treatment plans for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and the effects of physical activity on orthopaedic tissue health.
The Hoffman-Pittsburgh Chapter Named Award
University of Pittsburgh
School of Nursing, Doctor of Philosophy
Research Interest: Cancer survivorship and the ways in which the healthcare system can better understand and support this population, with a focus on how their experiences are impacted by adverse exposure to social determinants of health.
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
University of Pittsburgh
Department of Geology and Environmental Science
Research Interest: The effects of clay mineral formation and organic carbon oxidation on the global carbon cycle and near-term impacts of climate change.
The Gookin Family Foundation ARCS Pittsburgh Scholar Award Endowment
Carnegie Mellon University
Mellon College of Science, Chemistry
Research Interest: Development of novel pharmaceuticals for treatment of cancer and genetic diseases.
The Catharine and John Ryan ARCS Pittsburgh Endowed Scholar Award
Carnegie Mellon University
Department of Biology
Research Interest: Host-pathogen interactions, metabolism, and bacterial evolution.
The Simpson-Thier Children’s Hospital Named Award
University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology
Research Interest: How host genetics influence severe disease manifestation following infection with Rift Valley fever virus, a virus endemic to Africa and the Middle East
The Pittsburgh Chapter Award
University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine, Integrative Systems Biology
Research Interest: Harnessing machine learning models to interrogate the underlying biology of complex diseases such as cancer and subsequently identify therapeutic targets and predict responses for applications in precision medicine.