Tanya Keenan

University Honors College students Tanya Keenan, a sophomore majoring in neuroscience, and Margaret Bennewitz, a junior majoring in bioengineering with a minor in chemistry, have been awarded 2006 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their exceptional independent research in the science and engineering disciplines. Both Pennsylvania natives, Keenan is from Phoenixville and Bennewitz is from Easton.

Margaret Bennewitz

“The University of Pittsburgh has become a magnet for such hard-working, high-achieving students as Tanya and Margaret, who have the potential to make significant contributions, both to their fields of study and to the greater good,” said Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. “We are extremely proud of them and also commend their institutional home, Pitt’s Honors College, which provides an environment that is simultaneously challenging and supportive of individual student achievement.”

“Bennewitz and Keenan were exceptional candidates for this academic achievement, especially with their undergraduate research,” said G. Alec Stewart, Honors College dean and Pitt’s Goldwater faculty representative. “Both have long-term aspirations for Ph.D. work and academic careers. They come from two departments—bioengineering and neuroscience—known for their integrated commitment to both research and undergraduate education.”

Many Goldwater Scholars go on to receive prestigious postgraduate fellowships. Recent Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 63 Rhodes Scholarships, including five of the 42 awarded in the United States in 2006. Pitt 2006 Rhodes Scholar Justin Chalker received a Goldwater last year.

Congress established the Goldwater Scholarship in 1986 in honor of then-Senator Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona to encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. The premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields, the Goldwater Scholarship is awarded in a student’s sophomore or junior year. It covers tuition, room and board, fees, and books—up to $7,500 per year—for each student recipient’s remaining period of study. Pitt undergrads have won 35 Goldwater Scholarships.

Keenan, who works with Anthony Grace, a professor in the Pitt School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Neuroscience, is using a variety of neurophysiological techniques to understand the role of neural circuitry in such psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, addiction, and depression. Keenan’s research interest is in amygdala’s involvement in heightened emotional states. This summer, she will complete experiments that probe the circuitry between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Also this summer, she will participate in the Pitt in China program. Keenan’s long-term career goal is to be a neuroscientist who is both a committed investigator at a major research institution and an active participant in the global scientific community.

Bennewitz worked under the direction of Timothy Corcoran, a research professor in Pitt’s School of Medicine. Employing the imaging techniques of computed tomography and mucociliary clearance, Bennewitz analyzed scans of the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients using a model developed by Corcoran. She was able to determine how clearance rates varied according to lung region and the degree of cystic fibrosis. Bennewitz plans to earn a Ph.D. degree in biotechnology and artificial organs and become a researcher and professor at a university.