Nethmi Hewage, a junior majoring in chemistry, was selected to receive the prestigious 2022 Goldwater Scholarship — an honor awarded to 417 students out of 5,000 applicants across the nation.

The application process started in October 2021 and is for sophomore and junior students planning to get a doctorate in their field.

The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate scholarship in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering in the United States, according to the ISU News Service.

The Iowa State Goldwater campus committee endorses up to four students each year to apply for the scholarship. Applicants are chosen in October based on academic success and different research opportunities for STEM majors. 

John Milstead is the scholarship advisor at Iowa State and helps pick the committee. 

“It’s a long, long application process,” Milstead said. “We have a pretty extensive campus process.”

Hewage said she had an early start with research her freshman year. Her research includes materials science and solid-state chemistry. She recently did research at the University of Minnesota.

“I do synthesis and making new materials for energy applications, so we create new materials,” Hewage said. 

Hewage was born in Maine but moved to Sri Lanka and lived there for 15 years before deciding to come to Iowa State.

The application took about four months. Over winter break, Hewage worked on the application while in Sri Lanka. 

“I was on Zoom trying to find time because of the time difference,” Hewage said. “If it’s night for me, it’s morning for them [mentors], but they were still open to talk and go through the application.”

The Goldwater Scholarship awards $7,500 to winners. Milstead said the award is very prestigious because of the difficulty of winning. 

“There’s no guarantee that someone is going to win from Iowa State,” Milstead said. “We’ve had years in the past where everyone we’ve endorsed had been successful, and then we’ve had years when none of our candidates have been successful.”

Hewage said that her mentors, students and campus coordinators made it a team effort. 

“I’d like to thank all the mentors, university undergraduate students who helped me, my postdoc, and also the STEM scholar program, Dr. Corey Welch and the University of Minnesota,” Hewage said.

Hewage is planning to complete a 10-week research program at Northwestern University this summer. After obtaining her doctorate, Hewage plans to become a professor. 

To learn more about the Goldwater Scholarship, contact John Milstead, coordinator of nationally competitive awards, at [email protected].