Student Higgins wins prestigious Goldwater

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Michelle Higgins is one of 321 students nationwide to receive a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.

Higgins, a senior in the Department of Human Nutrition, is a nutritional sciences and biochemistry major who plans to pursue a doctorate in pharmacology. She is the daughter of Mary Higgins, associate professor in human nutrition.

The scholarships, worth up to $7,500 annually for a student’s final one or two years of undergraduate studies, are for majors in science, mathematics or engineering who plan careers in research. To be eligible, students must have at least a 3.0 grade point average. They also must complete four mini-essays and write a longer essay about a significant area of research in their field of study. Competition this year involved more than 1,000 students.

Higgins’s career goal is to conduct translational research in drug discovery and development at the university level. She was a student lab assistant in 2005 for human nutrition, assisting in a study researching the effects of diet and exercise on cancerous tumor development. The following year she worked as a research technician in the Nutrient Metabolism Lab, assisting in a glycemic index study investigating glucose absorption and insulin sensitivity.

In 2007, she was a National Exchange Student at Oregon State University, where she gained biochemistry research credit by maintaining prostate cancer cell cultures and learning DNA extraction and Western blotting.

She held a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she tested pharmacologic interventions for prostate cancer. This year she is working in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s pharmacology program, looking for proof of concept by performing immunohistochemistry on prostate tumor sections from treated mice.

Higgins was team captain for American Cancer Society Relay for Life, 2004-07. She also is a member of K-State Women’s Rowing Team, the College of Human Ecology honors program, Alpha Chi Sigma professional chemistry fraternity and Phi Kappa Phi honor society. 2004-2008.

Two other K-State students, William Carlson and Scott McCall, won 2008 Goldwaters.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 and is filed under Dean's Blog.