West Point Cadets Named Goldwater Scholars

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation announced that Cadets Edward Tang and Aiden Wright, Class of 2023, earned a Barry Goldwater Scholarship. West Point has produced 12 Goldwater Scholars since competing in 2018.  

“Congratulations to these scholars and their mentors! I am thrilled to see the excellent example that Cadets Edward Tang and Aiden Wright set for the entire Corps of Cadets,” said U.S. Military Academy Dean of the Academic Board Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves. “Their intellectual curiosity and dedication to research exemplify the intellectual capital found here at West Point. I look forward to seeing the impact they will continue to make in Computer Science and Chemistry.”

About the Goldwater Scholars

Cadet Edward Tang is a computer science major from Palo Alto, Calif. As a Stamps Scholar, he worked with nanomaterial synthesis in West Point's Multifunctional Materials Laboratory, creating lightweight, conductive, and energy-storing materials for use in lightweight batteries and biosensors. He has since expanded this work to contribute to a conductive biofiber project that won first place among over eighty teams from the service academies in the Warfighter Innovation in Science and Engineering competition in 2021. His current research endeavors involve using machine learning algorithms as a design tool to better inform regenerative medicine and tissue engineering research, thus reducing the expensive time and resource costs associated with iterative design process.  Tang has presented his work at numerous conferences and has multiple pending peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, he is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi and Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computing and Information honor societies. At West Point, Tang serves as a squad leader and is a member of the Cadet Competitive Cyber Team. Tang plans to branch Cyber and hopes to continue his research while using his experience in both cybersecurity and medicine to promote cybersecurity in the medical field through policy and technical avenues.

“To me, being the recipient of the Goldwater scholarship is an exciting opportunity that supports my goal of pursuing a graduate degree and being a leader at the cutting edge of research on machine learning and cybersecurity applications in the medical field,” said Tang.

Cadet Aidan Kate Wright, Class of 2023, is a Chemistry major and calls Farmington, Maine, her home. Wright graduated from Stuttgart High School in Germany and grew up in a military family, moving eleven times in twenty years. She is a Stamps Scholar, a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and is currently the president of the West Point Pre-Medical Society and the cadet in charge of the American Chemical Society Student Club. Wright also sings with the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Choir and has been a member of the Army West Point Judo team for the past two years. Wright is currently studying the effectiveness of small molecule countermeasures against amyloid-beta protein aggregation, which is associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. She is currently leading a project studying small molecule countermeasures against other biotoxins in addition to protein aggregates. With her research group, she has published five papers, including one in which she was a co-first author. She has presented her research at multiple conferences in her field to include both the 2021 and 2022 Biophysical Society Annual Meeting and the 2022 International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Wright aspires to continue research throughout medical school, and her hope is to become a physician in the U.S. Army and care for the military community she grew up in.

“Being a recipient of the Goldwater scholarship is an amazing opportunity to be a part of a scientific community of undergraduates who aspire to contribute meaningfully to society through research," said Wright. "This scholarship and the honor of belonging to the Goldwater community fuels me to further my knowledge in the field and become a leader that can make meaningful contributions to military medicine and neurodegenerative disease research and care.”

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship Program, one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics in the United States, seeks to identify and support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming this Nation’s next generation of research leaders in these fields.

About West Point 

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, co-educational, federal, liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. It was founded in 1802 as America’s first college of engineering and continues today as the world’s premier leader-development institution, consistently ranked among top colleges in the country. Its mission remains constant—to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the nation as an officer in the U. S. Army. For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu.