Ayan Mandal Wins Goldwater Scholarship

Ayan Mandal (C`18) has been named a 2017 Barry Goldwater Scholar. This prestigious scholarship, awarded to about 300 undergraduates each year, aims to help develop the nation’s next generation of STEM researchers.

A double major in neurobiology and biological physics, Ayan is excited about applying machine learning approaches to medicine. He has been a research assistant in Georgetown’s Cognitive Recovery Lab, where he used computer science concepts to study aphasia, the language deficit that often occurs as a result of stroke-induced brain damage. This summer, with support from a Raines Fellowship, Ayan is working in Prof. Rhonda Dzakpasu’s lab, where he is analyzing the firing patterns of neural networks formed from mice cells with a gene variant present in people with Alzheimer’s disease. He plans to continue this research for his senior thesis. In the longer term, Ayan plans to obtain an M.D./Ph.D., and he is interested in opportunities that combine teaching and research in neuroscience.