Meyerhoff Scholars Program

In Their Own Words

Isaac Matthews, Mechanical Engineering
What I find most exciting as a UMBC Scholar is just being immersed in an environment where everyone has a drive and is focused on a achieving a goal, whether it is going onto the top M.D./Ph.D. program in the nation or breaking a school record in track.

Through the Meyerhoff program, I interned at Northrop Grumman Space Technology preparing engineering design packets and designing and expediting the manufacturing of satellite test equipment. I also conducted research on a supercritical carbon dioxide nuclear power conversion system. My work from that project was featured in a publication and I was able to author my own report from it.

As the third Meyerhoff Scholar in my family, I have been prepared academically and professionally to make a positive impact on whatever field I choose to select as a career. Even more important is that ÒselectÓ implies choices; my preparation gives me many choices for the future. I am now faced with the great choices of graduate schools that I was hoping to have as a high school senior. My preparations at UMBC will serve me well as I go on to graduate school and look to become involved with the astronaut program as a researcher or even astronaut.

Michael Summers, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
My door is always open to students. Meyerhoff Scholars interested in an extended research experience in biochemistry, biology, chemistry and molecular biology have the opportunity to conduct research in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at UMBC. Many former and current students have spent several years working here during the school year and summer and winter breaks. There are more than 25 undergraduate students currently working in my lab and there are opportunities for many more interested students to join the group.

Meyerhoff Scholars in my lab have published research findings in peer review journals such as Science, Nature Structural Biology, Journal of Molecular Biology and other top international journals. Most have presented their work at international meetings and many of them have received awards for their research efforts. In one year, nine graduating seniors in my lab published 15 articles collectively.

Students in my lab work hard, and we have a lot of fun, too. We go on annual outings to Maine to ski and Western Maryland to mountain bike. Many of the students join me on weekly mountain biking trips to parks near campus.