Dalton Chaffee, an electrical engineering major in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Honors College, has won a 2015 Barry Goldwater Scholarship Honorable Mention. Dalton researches with Dr. Peter Bermel in Purdue’s Birck Nanotechnology Center on modeling thin-film solar cells. His plans include the development of high efficiency and economically feasible solar cells that will provide a solid alternative to fossil fuels.

The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986. It awards up to $7500 toward tuition, fees, and board to sophomores and juniors pursuing research careers in science, mathematics, or engineering.

Goldwater Scholarship recipients are incredibly talented undergraduates who already conduct research in their fields. Students pursuing the Goldwater Scholarship take part in a university-wide nomination process through Purdue’s National and International Scholarships Office, housed in Honors College. They undergo rigorous professional development, which includes writing an in-depth research proposal to be reviewed and selected by an interdisciplinary panel of faculty. Only four students each year are chosen to be put forward for national competition.