Sydney Hawkins, at a microscope in the Science Center.
Junior Biology major Sydney Hawkins has been awarded a prestigious $7,500 Barry M. Goldwater scholarship for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Ms. Hawkins is one of just 441 college students chosen from a nationwide pool of 1,350 students for the Goldwater scholarship. Students from 445 academic institutions were nominated.
Like more than half of recipients, Hawkins, a graduate of Chautauqua Lake Central School, intends to pursue a research career in the life sciences. Students majoring in engineering, mathematics and computer science were also represented among successful scholarship recipients. Virtually all plan to obtain doctorates.
When I was notified of the award, the majority of the biology department sought me out to congratulate me. The department is extremely supportive, regardless of who your advisor is or who you do research with. It doesn't matter.” - Sydney Hawkins
Hawkins is the second SUNY Fredonia student – the other is Gabrielle Cruz, for the 2023-2024 academic year – to receive a Goldwater scholarship. Associate Professor Thomas Hegna was awarded the scholarship as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa. He is the campus representative for the scholarship.
"Sydney is a student who just really gets the material intuitively and can focus on the important questions without any prompting,” Dr. Hegna commented.
Hegna remembers Hawkins engaging in an after-class discussion involving parasitic lifestyles in an Honors Program course on biodiversity that he teaches. “I was kind of blown away; she was asking questions at the graduate-school level,” noted Hegna, who advanced Hawkins’ Goldwater nomination.
“Sydney quietly takes advantage of every opportunity she has,” he said.
Hawkins indicated Hegna provided critical advice that allowed her to be more strategic in her Goldwater application, and more intentional about the details that she included.
“I also received insightful comments on my application essay from both my discipline and beyond, between Dr. [Courtney] Wigdahl-Perry and Dr. Natalie Gerber,” Hawkins reflected.
“When I was notified of the award, the majority of the biology department sought me out to congratulate me. The department is extremely supportive, regardless of who your advisor is or who you do research with. It doesn't matter.”
Hawkins will enter her senior year at SUNY Fredonia having completed successive summer research internships working alongside Visiting Assistant Professor Allison Hrycik in the study of harmful algal blooms in Chautauqua Lake.
The first internship investigated the relationship between benthic and pelagic algae in the lake. Hawkins was offered a co-authorship on Hrycik’s pending publication of the study. During the second internship, Hawkins calculated the biovolume of the cyanobacteria Gloeotrichia echinulata, a prominent harmful algal bloom component in the lake.
Both internship placements were part of the Jefferson Project, a multi-year program affiliated with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that examines water quality and harmful algal blooms in that lake and other bodies of fresh water.
“She does research far beyond her career stage and has a very bright future ahead of her,” Dr. Hrycik remarked. “The prestigious Goldwater scholarship is well deserved! I'm excited to see where Sydney goes in the future, and I have no doubt that she will be a leader in her field of research.”
Hawkins is currently evaluating results of that research in the lab of Dr. Wigdahl-Perry. She will present findings from that research at the Student Research and Creativity Expo in May on campus.
The Honors Program has been an extremely valuable asset to Hawkins, who initially learned about the Goldwater scholarship program in a STEM seminar held by the Honors Program.
“This allowed me to gear my trajectory early on towards the values of the award. The accessibility and insight that I gained from Honors events have played a key role in my campus engagement and opportunity awareness, leading to a higher level of success during my time here,” Hawkins said.
“Sydney possesses not only an immense intellectual curiosity and drive to learn and to bridge approaches from different disciplines, but she also has a remarkable determination to carve her own path,” commented Dr. Gerber.
Hawkins is independently reading scientific books on molecular ecology and is methodically working to get the tools from faculty members to help her best determine how to tackle research questions that she is independently forming, added Gerber, adviser of the Honors Program.
Hawkins’ career goal is to become a research scientist at a university and also teach at that level.
