POTSDAM -- A Potsdam resident and Clarkson student recently received an honorable mention in the Goldwater Scholarship competition. Two other Clarkson University students also received honorable mentions, and a Clarkson honors student took a Goldwater Scholarship award.

Tyler Hitchman, a biomolecular science major from Potsdam, took an honorable mention from the prestigious scholarship competition.

Hitchman, a graduate of Potsdam Central High School, is a junior with a minor in mathematics. He is working as an undergraduate teaching assistant for freshman chemistry. After freshman year, Tyler began research under the mentorship of Craig Woodworth, where he researched the comparative sensitivity to apoptosis of cells from different regions of the cervix.

Hitchman’s Goldwater proposal expanded on his previous research and detailed the importance of quantifying apoptotic regulating proteins that contribute to cell death resistance in cervical cells.

At the start of his junior year, Hitchman also joined Artem Melman’s laboratory, where he is working to synthesize small molecules capable of chelating iron in cancer cells. This summer, he will be working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in a lab that focuses on the development and testing of novel therapeutic approaches to lung cancer.

Hitchman plans to obtain a Ph.D. in biomedical science and conduct research in cancer therapy at the industrial or collegiate level.

Michael Lee, an aeronautical engineering major from Oneonta, was named a Goldwater Scholar.

Kaitlin Dunn, a physics and electrical engineering double major from Penfield, and Brittany Snyder, a biomolecular science major from Newport, were also awarded honorable mentions.

The Goldwater Scholarship is one of the most prestigious awards in the United States given to undergraduates who demonstrate “outstanding potential," studying in mathematics, science and engineering. Only 260 scholarships were awarded for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Including this year’s scholar, 31 Clarkson University students have received the award since the scholarships were first awarded in 1989. This is the 16th consecutive year that Clarkson Honors Program students received Goldwaters.