Ryan Boldi ‘25 Awarded Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
Ryan Boldi is one of three third-year UMass Amherst students who have won scholarships for the 2024–25 academic year from the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
Boldi, a computer science major with minors in philosophy and psychology from Boston, Massachusetts and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has a career plan to study the emergence of intelligence from the perspective of evolving and learning artificial systems.
“With this [award] in mind, I hope to complete a PhD in computer science and eventually continue investigating the same questions in academia or in the industry,” Boldi says.
Boldi joins juniors June Ahn, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, and Kevin Alexander, a chemistry, physics and math major, in receiving the award. All three are Commonwealth Honors College juniors committed to a career in STEM research.
The Goldwater Foundation provides a continuing source of highly qualified scholars to work as scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. The Goldwater Scholarship supports students who have a passion for research, potential to contribute to their disciplines, and who plan to pursue a graduate degree.
“I am proud to work with UMass Amherst students and be part of a great village of faculty, mentors, and advisers who have contributed to their success and the visibility of our university nationally,” says Madalina Alki, director of the UMass Amherst Office of National Scholarship Advisement and Goldwater advisor.
Student nominations for the Goldwater were made possible by UMass Amherst’s Office of National Scholarship Advisement (ONSA), an advising service available to all UMass Amherst undergraduate and graduate students, as well as to the university’s alumni. Each year, ONSA nominates four sophomores or juniors for the Goldwater Scholarship and Akli encourages STEM sophomores and juniors to contact ONSA for advising.
Originally published by the UMass Amherst Office of News & Media Relations.