Dedham Resident Jeffrey Letourneau Earns Honorable Mention in Prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation Program

2016 May 11

Worcester Polytechnic Institute student Jeffrey Letourneau of Dedham, Mass., a junior majoring in biology and biotechnology, recently received Honorable Mention from the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence Foundation Program, a national distinction that recognizes outstanding students pursuing careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering.

Jeffrey, a junior from Dedham, Mass., is pursuing a biology and biotechnology major and a Spanish minor. His professional goals include completing a postdoctoral degree in microbiology, teaching as a professor at the university level, and conducting research that focuses on mechanisms of pathogenesis, ultimately as the principal investigator of his own laboratory. He intends to one day lead a research team in the study of virulence factors and methods of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Letourneau is currently researching brain-behavior relationships in pollinating insects, such as bumblebees and monarch butterflies, with Robert Gegear, assistant professor of biology and biotechnology. He previously served as an intern with Corbus Pharmaceuticals, where he researched drugs, pathways, and animal models of interest to the company in order to assess feasibility of new innovations on existing drugs and potential partnerships with other companies. He has received numerous academic scholarships and awards, including the WPI Presidential Scholarship, the WPI James R. Gorman Scholarship, and the People's Choice Award at the 2014 Great Problems Seminar symposium for his poster presentation on recommendations to mitigate effects of BPA exposure in Alaska.

This year 252 Goldwater Scholars and 256 Honorable Mentions were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,150 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by representatives of 415 colleges and universities nationwide.

Since 2002, 24 WPI students have been named Scholars or received Honorable Mention in the Goldwater Scholarship Program.

The Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence Foundation Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor U.S. Sen. Barry M. Goldwater. The recognition is widely considered to be the premier undergraduate award in the science, math, and engineering fields.