Ryan Le Tourneau wins honorable mention from Goldwater Foundation

2017 Jul 6

Ryan Le Tourneau has been awarded an honorable mention from the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

Le Tourneau, who will be a fourth-year chemistry major at the Rochester Institute of Technology, was recognized based on academic merit.

The Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program is the premier award for undergraduates pursuing degrees in mathematics, science, or engineering, and encourages outstanding students to pursue research careers. The foundation, this year, selected 240 scholars and 307 honorable mentions from 1,286 nominees from 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities.

LeTourneau works in research professor Hans Schmitthenner’s laboratory in RIT’s School of Chemistry and Materials Science. LeTourneau conducts research on the creation of targeted molecular imaging agents for photoacoustic and optical imaging of cancer cells. This research was a runner up in the RIT Tiger Tank competition. LeTourneau has conducted research at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Grimm Imaging Lab on Rare Earth Oxide Containing Nanoparticles for Advanced Optical Imaging, and a patent disclosure has been submitted for this work. LeTourneau has presented his research at the World Molecular Imaging Congress; the Rochester American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Symposium, where he won best organic poster award; and the Rochester Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the RIT Chemistry Research Scholars and the RIT Honors Program and is a recipient of the Shaps Scholars Award for Excellence in the Gerstner Summer Undergraduate Research Program. LeTourneau plans to pursue his Ph.D. in chemistry.