Julia Olivieri Receives Goldwater Scholarship

Julia Olivieri, a third-year mathematics and biology double-major, is one of 260 undergraduates in the nation to receive the Barry Goldwater Scholarship for math, science, and engineering majors.

Olivieri, who is from Narberth, Pennsylvania, will receive a one-year scholarship of up to $7,500. Goldwater Scholars are selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,206 mathematics, science, engineering, and computer science students nationwide. According to the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, virtually all chosen scholars intend to obtain a PhD as their degree objective.

Goldwater Scholars have impressive academic qualifications that receive the attention of prestigious postgraduate fellowship programs. Recent Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 86 Rhodes Scholarships, 123 Marshall Awards, 123 Churchill Scholarships, and numerous other distinguished fellowships such as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships.

Olivieri is studying abroad in Hungary this semester with Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. She has studied how to make stable mosaics in Conway’s Game of Life with Professor of Mathematics Bob Bosch. In summer 2014, she worked in Associate Professor of Biology Mike Moore’s lab studying the evolutionary relationships between plant groups. Next year, she will undertake an honors math project with Bosch, in which she will study the intersection of graph theory, networks, optimization, and biology.

She has also been involved with the Du Bois Project, which aims to help students in Oberlin’s public schools excel in and enjoy math. After Oberlin, Olivieri intends to pursue a PhD in mathematical and theoretical biology.