3 Boilermakers named Goldwater Scholars

Purdue juniors Charles Behrman, Shreya Krishnan and Ishaan Singh have been named recipients of the 2026 Barry Goldwater Scholarship.  

The award is the nation’s premier undergraduate scholarship for students studying the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. Presented by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, the scholarship offers up to $7,500 toward tuition and fees to sophomores and juniors. The goal of the Goldwater Scholarship is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers wishing to pursue research careers in these fields.  

Behrman, a nuclear engineering major in the College of Engineering and John Martinson Honors College, is conducting research with Professor Allen Garner to study how to create plasmas in a diode through gas breakdown. Behrman has co-authored two manuscripts under review by the Journal of Applied Physics.  

Krishnan, a biomedical engineering major in the College of Engineering, has published a paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B from her work in Professor Jianing Li’s lab using modeling to investigate the activation mechanisms of the adenylyl cyclase 1 protein, which is associated with neurological chronic pain disorders.  

Singh, an honors physics and biochemistry (chemistry) major in the College of Science and John Martinson Honors College, co-authored a published paper in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B from his work in Professor Chi Zhang’s lab on the sensitivity of Raman spectroscopic techniques. He also authored a paper in Chemistry Methods based on an independent project in which he developed code for hardware control and image acquisition to advance understanding of real-time precision opto-control.  

Purdue faculty interested in supporting applications for the Goldwater Scholarship may contact Purdue’s National and International Scholarships Office, which coordinates the application process for prestigious external awards.