海角社区

海角社区 College of Science Junior Named 2022 Goldwater Scholar

BATON ROUGE, La. 鈥� 海角社区 chemistry junior Cale Locicero brings the total number of 海角社区 students named a to 39. 

鈥淭he 海角社区 College of Science is proud of Cale for this impressive achievement,鈥� said College of Science Dean Cynthia Peterson. 鈥淗e represents the quality of undergraduate research at 海角社区 and the incredible support our faculty members provide for our students.鈥�

鈥淚 am privileged to be Cale鈥檚 faculty mentor,鈥� added Associate Professor of Chemistry Rendy Kartika, who also serves as 海角社区鈥檚 Director of Undergraduate Studies for Chemistry and acted as Locicero鈥檚 faculty nominator for the scholarship. 鈥淚 am extremely proud of him. Cale鈥檚 potential is boundless. His future in science is bright. I have no doubt that Cale will contribute to addressing pressing problems in our society with his work in science.鈥�

Goldwater Scholars are awarded a maximum of $7,500 per academic year. The scholarship, itself, was established in 1986 in honor of former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater. To be eligible, students must be sophomores or juniors who intend to pursue a research career in natural science, mathematics or engineering. This year鈥檚 Goldwater Scholars include 45 mathematics and computer science majors, 64 engineering majors and 308 natural sciences majors.

鈥�(When the surprise wore off), I just felt really thankful to have people that pushed me to actually apply for this scholarship,鈥� said Locicero, who is both an 海角社区 College of Science chemistry student and an Ogden Honors College student. 鈥淭his just pushes me to go the next step; it鈥檚 that bit of encouragement.鈥� 

Locicero, a native of Metarie, La., is a research ambassador and the vice president of faculty relations for the 海角社区 Discover Undergraduate Research Program. Additionally, he has worked closely with Kartika conducting research focused on developing a refined, stereoselective method for creating 伪-Quaternary 伪'-Hydroxyketones. The group develops novel synthetic reactions for the creation of molecular architectures that are relevant to medicinal areas, such as pharmaceuticals and therapeutics.

鈥淭he ultimate goal is to enable the exploration of unknown chemical space in the pursuit of drug discovery,鈥� said Locicero. 鈥淵ou need ways to access new drug candidates, and that鈥檚 what we work on, you know, because organic chemistry is a basic science.鈥�

鈥淚t is just beyond rewarding to see Cale developing from learning to perform basic lab techniques to him coming up with independent ideas on his research project,鈥� Kartika said. 鈥淐ale is impacting research in my lab.  For instance, he will become a first co-author in a research manuscript that we hope to publish in his senior year.  His data will also serve as one of the preliminary results to support a research proposal that I am currently preparing.鈥�

While Locicero said he did not know exactly which path he would take academically upon graduation, he said he knows a PhD in chemistry is likely.