Four University of Pennsylvania third-year undergraduates have received 2026 Goldwater Scholarships, awarded to students planning research careers in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics.
Penn’s 2026 Goldwater Scholars are Shreya Nair, and Pranav Sompalle of the College of Arts & Sciences, and Ian Peng and Emily Valerio of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
They are among the 454 students named Goldwater Scholars, out of more than 5,000 nominees by 482 academic institutions in the United States, according to the Barry Goldwater Scholarship & Excellence in Education Foundation.
Each scholarship provides up to $7,500 per year for up to two years of undergraduate study.
The students applied for the Goldwater Scholarship with assistance from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF). Penn has had 72 Goldwater Scholars named since Congress established the scholarship in 1986 to honor U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater.
Shreya Nair, from Allen, Texas, is majoring in biology and minoring in engineering entrepreneurship in the College and submatriculating for a master’s degree in bioengineering. She conducts research in Ben Stanger’s laboratory under Minh Than at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, investigating cancer interception with KRAS inhibitors in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and at MD Anderson Cancer Center under the mentorship of Michael Andreeff, studying the combined use of menin inhibitors and c-MYC degraders in KMT2A-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia. At Penn, Nair serves as a research peer advisor for CURF, is a member of the Department of Biology’s student advisory committee, and participates in the Venture Lab and Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, where she is building her startup. She plans to pursue graduate studies in cancer engineering.
Ian Peng, from Arcadia, California, is majoring in bioengineering in Penn Engineering and is enrolled in the accelerated master’s program in bioengineering. He works in the lab of ophthalmologist Lucie Guo, where he is building synthetic biology tools for precision medicine and dynamic gene therapies. Previously, he worked in the labs of neuroscientists Guo-li Ming and Hongjun Song to explore platforms that recapitulate neural tube formation in vitro, as well as the lab of materials scientist Yuanwen Jiang to investigate bioelectronic systems. At Penn, Peng is vice president of the Biomedical Engineering Society and serves on the boards of Grey Matters—Penn’s undergraduate neuroscience journal—and the Penn Immunology Club. He plans to pursue an M.D.-Ph.D. in bioengineering.
Pranav Sompalle, from Cleveland, Ohio, is majoring in biochemistry and biophysics and minoring in history, and submatriculating for a master’s degree in chemistry through the Vagelos MLS program in the College. Sompalle is interested in making precision medicine accessible by developing AI tools to predict new diagnostic insights from low-cost imaging and innovating care delivery. He is the policy and outcomes lead for Penn’s Shelter Health Outreach Program and undergraduate coordinator at the University City Hospitality Coalition Free Medical Clinic. He is a U.S. Presidential Scholar and winner of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Science Challenge Award. He hopes to become a physician scientist integrating biomedical engineering and AI with community health.
Emily Valerio, of The Woodlands, Texas, is majoring in chemical and biomolecular engineering with a concentration in pharmaceutics and biotechnology in Penn Engineering. She conducts cancer evolution research, exploring how cells circumvent cancerous mutations and how mechanisms can be leveraged for treatments. Valerio also serves as president of Penn’s Engineering Deans’ Advisory Board. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemical engineering to design advanced therapeutics for under-researched diseases and advocate for equitable research funding.
Related Articles
Working Hard on Labor History
Nishanth Bhargava (‘27), a History major, conducted research on the French labor movement in the 20th century. He was mentored by Siarhei Biareishyk (Department of Russian and East European Studies) and supported by the University Scholars program.
Education, Culture, and Community at the Weitzman
Jack Lamey (‘27), a Philosophy, Politics and Economics major, was an intern for the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. This internship was supported by the Summer Humanities Internship Program.