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Contact: University Communications & Marketing
Phone (678) 839-6464, FAX (678) 839-6645
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Bockelman wins Goldwater Scholarship
April 3, 2003
CARROLLTON, GA - Brian Bockelman, an Honors College mathematics major at the University of West Georgia, has won a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. He is the third West Georgia student in the past six years to receive a Goldwater, one of the premier undergraduate awards in the United States for students majoring in the sciences, mathematics or engineering.
Among Georgia institutions, only the University of Georgia and Georgia Institute of Technology have had more students receive Goldwaters in recent years. This year, in addition to Bockelman, two UGA students, one from Georgia Tech, and one from Agnes Scott received the scholarship.
A
student at South Gwinnett High School in Snellville, Bockelman is enrolled
jointly as a University junior in UWG’s Advanced Academy of Georgia.
Since he has earned so many credits in such a short period of time as
an Advanced Academy student, he will graduate from the University at the
end of the 2003 fall semester. He recently celebrated his 18th birthday
and will graduate from UWG before he reaches his 19th.
An Ingram Scholar and a Presidential Scholarship recipient, Bockelman has a 4.0 grade-point average and has been on the Dean’s List every term he has been at UWG. Last year, his first year at UWG, Brian was named Outstanding Freshman Honors College student. This year, he was named as the West Georgia Academic Recognition Scholar by the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
According to Dr. Don Wagner, dean of the Honors College, Bockelman is probably the most prolific undergraduate researcher ever to attend West Georgia. During his freshman year, he entered the campus-wide Sigma Xi research competition with a physics project and won. That research was recently published.
Last year he was selected in a national competition to spend summer 2002 doing research with other undergraduate research-oriented mathematics students at the University of Nebraska. He authored one project and co-authored another, both of which were accepted for presentation at the annual joint meeting of the American Mathematics Society and the Mathematical Association of America. Both were named among the top 10 research projects presented at this meeting by a national committee of mathematicians.
“This annual meeting is usually described as the most prestigious meeting for academic mathematicians,” Wagner noted. “Brian is the only West Georgia student ever to present at this meeting. He was the only student to have two projects selected among the top ten this year.” Bockelman also presented research this year at the National Collegiate Honors Conference annual meeting and the annual meeting of the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. Next month, he and two student colleagues will present research at the annual meeting of the National Social Science Association.
Bockelman will spend this summer doing research in the Mathematics Department at Cornell University, an opportunity Wagner said that his extraordinary record helped him win in yet another national competition.
In addition to his research activities and academic class load, Bockelman works as a tutor in the Honors College and is a student assistant for Information Technology Services. He is also an active member of the Gunn Hall residence hall council, and was a team leader for the international Mathematical Contest in Modeling, which received Meritorious ranking in this year’s competition.
UWG President Beheruz Sethna, who taught Bockelman in a Honors marketing class, said, “Brian is an outstanding student. There were times when I started to explain a calculus or statistical derivation to the class, only to find that Brian was way ahead of the explanation and had arrived at the answer already!”
Sethna pointed out that of the 300 Goldwater Scholarship recipients from around the country, well over 90 percent attend research universities, which he said raises the question of how UWG competes so well with the nation’s best and biggest universities, and with its best students.
“First and foremost, it is the accomplishments of our wonderful students that lead to such high honors. In addition, I want to celebrate the contributions of our excellent faculty who, contrary to the research University model, spend a tremendous amount of time helping to build students’ resumes and credentials, rather than focus exclusively on their own,” Sethna explained.
This year’s Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,093 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by their institutions nationwide. Bockelman is one of the 31 math majors; 210 are science majors; 45 are majoring in engineering; and 12 are in computer science-related majors. Many of the Scholars have dual majors in a variety of math, science, engineering and computer disciplines.
“‘Educational Excellence in a Personal Environment’ is not an advertising slogan with us; it is a way of life,” Sethna stated. “I must specifically recognize the many contributions of our valued colleague Dr. Don Wagner, who for many years has made it his business to guide these students and help them with their national scholarship applications.”
The Goldwater Scholarship will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to $7500 a year for two years.
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