Alyssa Williams, Psychology and Biochemistry Double Major, Wins Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship!
The Barry Goldwater scholarship is given each year to students with promising potential for research careers in STEM. It's one of a the most prestigious research awards for undergraduates! The Goldwater website also provides more information about the scholarship and its purpose.
I got my start with research as a first semester freshman working with Dr. Cliff McKinney, investigating parental psychological control and how it might impact their emerging adult children’s mental health and emotion regulation skills. I then went on to complete two NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)s at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Washington, which were 10-week immersive summer research internships. This research was more focused in the neurosciences, particularly in cognitive and computational neuroscience research pertaining to Alzheimer’s Disease. I have been continuing this work in collaboration with Dr. Jarrod Moss here in the psychology department by implementing an eye tracking study to further understand how computational modeling can be used to implement new diagnostic tools. I hope to use this experience as leverage to get my PhD and eventually work as a university professor.