Four Caltech Undergraduates Named Goldwater Scholars in 2026
In late March, the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship to 454 third- and fourth-year university students, including four third-year scholars from Caltech: Avni Bansal, Aarya Riasati, Evan Zhang, and Rayhan Zirvi.
The scholarship provides each student with up to $7,500 to put toward the cost of tuition and expenses across their remaining years in the degree program. Colleges and universities can nominate up to four sophomores or juniors for the award each year; this year, all four of Caltech's nominees were selected for the award.
"I'm thrilled but not surprised that all four of our nominees were selected as scholars this year," says Kristin Weyman, associate dean for undergraduate students, dean of first and second year students, and Caltech's campus representative for the Goldwater Scholarship. "Our newest Goldwater Scholars display a tremendous aptitude for research in STEM and a passion for research careers in their fields. I'm delighted that they have been recognized for their hard work, and I look forward to following their future accomplishments and contributions to their fields."
Avni Bansal, a third-year undergraduate studying astrophysics, has had the opportunity during her time at Caltech to conduct research with four faculty members: Konstantin Batygin, professor of planetary science; Fiona Harrison, the Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics; Kareem J. El-Badry, assistant professor of astronomy; and Lynne Hillenbrand, professor of astronomy. Bansal's projects have spanned a wide range of topics, from studying perturbations of the early solar system and determining the properties of an obscured active galactic nucleus using data from the NuSTAR mission, to hunting for binaries in a nearby globular cluster using images from the Hubble Space Telescope and determining the properties of young multiple-star systems in the Orion Nebula.
For Bansal, becoming a Goldwater Scholar affirms her career goal of doing research as a tenured professor at a university. "Coming to Caltech helped me decide on this goal," Bansal says. "I enjoy going from knowing nothing about something to looking through the data, thinking about it, and reading other papers, and then, after a few months, suddenly knowing something I didn't know before. I find that really rewarding."
Aarya Riasati is a third-year undergraduate who studies physics and was recently conducting research on developing and applying quantum mechanical methods to model potential applications of specific atoms and molecules in the field of sustainability, electronics, and drug design in the lab of Bill Goddard, the Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Applied Physics, and Harry Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry and founding director of the Beckman Institute. These days, Riasati is interested in researching photonics with the aim of creating physical practical devices in the laboratory of Alireza Marandi, professor of electrical engineering and applied physics.
Riasati sees becoming a Goldwater Scholar as an honor that reflects not only his own hard work but also the dedication of the mentors who supported him along the way. He says that he has found Caltech to be a unique environment for fostering research relationships.
"If I go to the Red Door, I might run into someone who's working at the frontier in robotics. Or if I go to the subbasement of Beckman, I might meet someone who's working on the frontier of drug design and machine learning–assisted drug discovery," he says. "Just through a conversation, we can spin up a collaboration or partnership. I think, nowhere else on Earth does this exist."
Evan Zhang, a third-year undergraduate in bioengineering, currently conducts research on engineering therapeutic protein circuits for cancer therapy in the lab of Michael B. Elowitz, the Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Biology and Bioengineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
"Cells and living organisms can be thought of as complex devices—just like your computer or phone—with the ability to perform remarkable tasks, like scavenge for food, coordinate elaborate defense mechanisms against pathogens, and even develop into complex organs like the brain," Zhang says of his research. "Like electrical devices, these functions are programmed into the organism and are carried out by networks of interacting biomolecular components, such as DNA, proteins, or even individual cells, which we call biological circuits, analogous to electrical circuits. My research focuses on understanding some of the design principles that nature has used when engineering natural circuits to ultimately use them to rationally program our own synthetic circuits for treating disease."
Zhang says that winning the Goldwater Scholarship validates the work he has done so far and signals that he is on the right path to a research career. He also expresses gratitude for his research mentors, including Elowitz and members of his lab, Andrew Lu and Lukas Moeller. Zhang hopes to one day lead an academic lab at the intersection of systems and synthetic biology.
Rayhan Zirvi is a third-year undergraduate studying computer science who researches generative models for scientific applications in the lab of Anima Anandkumar, Bren Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. There, Zirvi focuses on using diffusion models to solve inverse problems—tasks that involve reconstructing images or signals from noisy or incomplete data.
Zirvi says that becoming a Goldwater Scholar motivates him to continue working toward his goal of pursuing a PhD in machine learning and becoming a professor.
"The most meaningful aspect of my time at Caltech has been the relationships I've built with graduate students and professors in my lab. Being able to exchange ideas, build on each other's work, and learn from my mentors has shaped how I think about research as a collaborative process," Zirvi says. "I'm deeply grateful for all the support and guidance I've received from my mentors here."