Maddisyn Behney ’26 was named the College’s third Goldwater Scholar by The Barry Goldwater Scholarship in Education Foundation. A Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Environmental Science double major from Hegins, Pa., Behney joins Christian Lantz ’21 (2020, Ph.D. program, final year, University of Oxford) and Brandon Roy ’20 (2019, recently completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University). Robert “Bobby” Tesoriero ’19 (2018, now a Ph.D. student at Rice University) was named Honorable Mention in 2018.

The Goldwater Scholarship program provides scholarships to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The Goldwater Foundation helps ensure that the U.S. produces the number of highly qualified professionals the Nation needs in these critical fields.

Behney has been intricately involved in student-faculty research as an undergraduate, working with Dr. Rebecca Urban, Director of Environmental Science and Professor of Biology, and Dr. Liz Sterner, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, during her initial research. The work used in her Goldwater application was conducted with Urban, Sterner, and Dr. Robert Carey, Professor of Biology, the latter she has conducted student-faculty research with for over a year. Behney highlighted her research and wrote the Goldwater essay about her research with Carey. She has also worked extensively with Jennifer Thornsberry ’14, Biology Lab Technician, as a Lab Teaching Assistant in her General Biology labs and caretaker in the College’s Greenhouse.

“Maddi is one of the best research students I have ever mentored and is an incredibly talented young scientist,” said Carey. “She is interested in evolutionary genetics, particularly in plants, and has meticulously documented her data, explored the literature, and established observations that will be presented at regional conferences, with later intentions to publish. I have no doubt she will be a successful researcher, and we will all benefit from her work in the future.”

Behney, a regular Dean’s List honoree, is equally active throughout LVC, having served as a First-Year Mentor, Peer Tutor, and Resident Assistant. She participated in summer scientific research in 2023 and 2024, presented student-faculty research during the College’s annual Inquiry Symposium, and received LVC’s prestigious Beta Beta Beta First-Year and Sophomore Achievement Awards (Biology) and Sophomore Achievement Award in Chemistry. Behney was inducted into Tri Beta, the Biology Department honor society.

Behney intends to pursue a Ph.D. in Plant Biology and conduct research in plant genomics afterward. Her goal is to teach at the university level.

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to serve as a living memorial to honor the lifetime work of Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years in the U.S. Senate.

By providing scholarships to college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics and engineering, the Goldwater Foundation is helping ensure that the U.S. is producing the number of highly qualified professionals the Nation needs in these critical fields. Over its 30-year history, Goldwater Scholarships have been awarded to thousands of undergraduates, many of whom have gone on to win other prestigious awards like the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship, Rhodes Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship that support our Scholars’ graduate school work. Today, Goldwater alumni can be found conducting research that is helping defend the Nation, finding cures for catastrophic diseases and teaching future generations of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers.