University of Evansville’s Goldwater Scholar’s “Smart” therapudic research has the potential to simultaneously target, detect and treat cancer cells
Like many other Goldwater Scholars, Abby Smith from Franklin, Indiana, is a remarkable young woman. At the University of Evansville where she is professional chemistry major, she is both a competitive swimmer and a stellar student in the classroom. “What made her competitive for the Goldwater Scholarship was the wide variety of drug discovery research she did as an undergraduate working for a year and a half in the laboratory of Dr. Andy Lampkins, the G. Richard and Rita Eykamp Endowed Chair in Chemistry at Evansville,” said John Mateja, President of the Goldwater Foundation. “Abby’s project,” Dr. Lampkins explained, “involves creating a new paradigm in cancer treatment called ’smart’ therapeutics that have the potential to target, treat and detect cancerous cells all at the same time.”
“Being selected as a Goldwater Scholar helped me realize my capability and potential as a scientist, and further reaffirmed my resolve to pursue graduate studies,” Abby said. She went on to say that “while the Goldwater award helped me secure a number of offers from prestigious chemistry Ph.D. programs, I selected Vanderbilt University’s chemistry doctoral program as it affords me the opportunity to work in the area that best fits my career goal of being a synthetic organic chemist working in a large pharmaceutical firm.”