EH
Emily Holz
  • biomedical engineering
  • Class of 2016
  • Spring Valley, WI

Emily Holz wins prestigious Goldwater Scholarship

2015 May 6

Cottage Grove, Minn., resident Emily Holz, a Rochester Institute of Technology student, has been awarded a scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

Holz is a fourth-year student in the biomedical engineering program at RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering. As a Goldwater scholar, Holz will receive $7,500 toward her senior year at RIT.

Holz is one of 260 Goldwater award winners selected from 1,206 nominees. The Goldwater Scholarship is based on academic merit and regarded as one of the most prestigious undergraduate honors. It is awarded to students committed to pursuing careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

Holz has enjoyed a variety of undergraduate research experiences through the RIT co-op program. She worked with Kara Maki, assistant professor in RIT’s School of Mathematical Sciences, modeling the settling dynamics of a contact lens on the eye, a topic of interest to Bausch & Lomb. Following her research on contact lenses with Maki, Holz spent two summers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her research focused on finding less expensive methods to fabricate multispectral MRI contrast agents developed by her research group. While on another co-op at LSI Solutions, Holz worked on laparoscopic cardiac surgical devices. She is currently on co-op at Genentech in San Francisco. Holz works with members of the department of early stage pharmaceutical development on novel methods to stabilize antibodies in formulations. When not on co-op, she is secretary for the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honors Society and climbs for the RIT rock climbing team. Holz hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in targeted drug delivery.