From crop molecular genetics to estuarine mussels to computer experiments, three University of Georgia undergraduates have been honored for furthering research in their fields of study.
Juniors Oscar de la Torre, Anderson Smith and Sloka Sudhin are among the 441 undergraduates from across the nation to be recognized as Barry Goldwater Scholars this spring. They have earned the highest undergraduate award of its type for the fields of mathematics, engineering and natural sciences.
De la Torre is from Chicago, Illinois, and is pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied biotechnology and plant breeding, genetics and genomics in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Smith is a Foundation Fellow from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and is pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ecology in the Odum School of Ecology. Sudhin is a Foundation Fellow and Stamps Scholar from Marietta, Georgia, and is majoring in data science and applied mathematics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. All three recipients have received funding from the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, and Smith and Sudhin are in the Morehead Honors College.
Since 1995, 70 students at the University of Georgia have received the Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional sophomores and juniors across the United States.
“The University of Georgia is very proud of Oscar, Anderson and Sloka for their exceptional accomplishments,” said President Jere W. Morehead. “During their time at UGA, these outstanding students have played a key role in the generation of new knowledge, and I look forward to all that they will contribute to their respective fields in the years to come.”
This year’s Goldwater recipients include 50 scholars who intend to pursue research careers in mathematics and computer science, 240 in the sciences, 88 in medicine and 63 in engineering and materials research. Fifteen scholars are from Georgia institutions.
“Oscar, Anderson and Sloka are conducting important and impactful research with their faculty mentors, and we are proud that they have been chosen as Goldwater Scholars,” said Meg Amstutz, dean of the Morehead Honors College. “Undergraduate research at UGA is thriving, and every day these three students bring curiosity, intelligence and passion to their research.”
Oscar de la Torre (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)
Oscar de la Torre
De la Torre plans to earn a Ph.D. in genetics with an emphasis on plant science. As a crop molecular geneticist, he hopes to identify and edit traits in crop genomes that will improve crop yield, stimulate disease resistance and expand nutrition. His goal is to use scientific tools to improve food security on a global scale.
“Receiving the Goldwater Scholarship represents all of the hard work I have put into my personal and academic growth, which is made possible by the wonderful experiences I have been fortunate enough to have at UGA,” de la Torre said. “The scholarship will support the remainder of my undergraduate career and contribute to my pursuit of graduate education and a career in plant research. The scholarship will allow me to continue to engage with my research interests without limitations during my final year at UGA.”
At UGA, de la Torre has conducted research with Dayton Wilde, a professor of horticulture, and Chung-Jui Tsai, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and a professor of forestry, genetics, plant biology and bioinformatics. In the Wilde lab, de la Torre’s research aims to improve plant regeneration technology via somatic embryogenesis as a platform for genome engineering, specifically in disease-susceptible flowering dogwood. His investigations include how somatic embryos respond to varying light intensities and cold treatments during germination. In the Tsai lab, he increased his understanding of the molecular level of plant systems by studying virus-induced gene editing in tobacco and helping to manage experimental plant populations in the greenhouse.
Last summer, de la Torre conducted research as a DaRin Butz Research Fellow at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, working with Benton Taylor, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology. He studied the impact of different soil microbes on chemical defense mechanisms against insect herbivory in tree populations located in the arboretum.
As a 2023-2024 Public Service and Outreach Scholar, de la Torre completed an internship at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, where he developed native plant material for plant sales and use by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in specialized restoration projects. He previously facilitated overnight camping activities as a trip leader for the UGA Outdoor Recreation Center and engaged in peer discussions as a member of the UGA Biotechnology Club.
De la Torre competes on the nationally ranked UGA Club Spikeball Team and is a research scholar in the Peach State Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. He is a recipient of the Mensa Foundation Kuhnel Scholarship, the P.W. Fattig Entomology Scholarship Award, a 2024 CURO Research Award and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Research Initiative Award. At the 2025 CAES Undergraduate Research Symposium, he placed second for his oral presentation.
This summer, de la Torre will conduct research at the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University through the Plant Genome Research Experience for Undergraduates.
Anderson Smith (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)
Anderson Smith
Smith plans to earn a Ph.D. in ecology, focusing on the genetic population structures of species threatened with extinction. Her goal is to teach and also conduct research that will help to conserve Earth’s biodiversity.
“Receiving independent funding from the Goldwater Foundation helps me to keep doing the science I’m passionate about,” she said. “More than that, it means a group of professionals read my work and found value in the connection between genes and ecosystems, between the little estuarine mussels I study and abstract concepts like salt marsh restoration and climate change. It’s humbling and more than gratifying after lots of hard work.”
Smith’s research includes three projects with John Wares, UGA associate professor of ecology and genetics, which include looking at the genomic diversity of an estuarian mussel, analyzing salamander population genetics that were collected from filters placed in streams in Georgia and North Carolina, and examining the relationship between coronuloid barnacles and whale population genetics, which she plans to continue for her master’s thesis. She is also studying the pollutant-tolerant killifish and its response to pollution with Andrew Whitehead, a professor of toxicology at the University of California, Davis.
Smith previously investigated nematodes in white-tailed deer, a project she conducted with Michael Yabsley, a UGA professor of parasitology. She is first author on a research paper currently in press in a national publication about her team’s work.
At UGA, Smith helps teach a programming and statistics course for ecologists as a peer learning assistant, tutors native Spanish speakers in English as a volunteer lead at Casa de Amistad, connects with prospective ecology students as an Odum Ambassador, and volunteers at UGArden, a sustainable community garden that serves food-insecure families in Athens. At Southeastern Society of Parasitology meetings, she received a 2023 Best Poster Award for her work on nematode phylogenetics and a 2024 Ciorida-Stewart-Porter Undergraduate Award for her oral presentation.
She studied biomedical ethics at the University of Oxford, added a Spanish minor after traveling to Ecuador and the Galápagos, and will return to Ecuador this summer to survey the genetic structure of amphibian and freshwater turtle populations.
Sloka Sudhin (Photo by Stephanie Schupska)
Sloka Sudhin
Sudhin plans to earn a Ph.D. in applied math or computer science. She wants to conduct research at the intersection of optimization algorithms and predictive modeling through complex computer experiments. Her goal is to translate real-world phenomena into mathematical problems and apply powerful theoretical results in new ways to find the best algorithms.
“I’m interested in researching computer experiments, which serve as simulations when a physical experiment is difficult or even impossible to conduct in real life,” she said. “With applications from aerospace engineering, to mapping brain activity, to traffic control, to weather modeling, it’s a vast field that encompasses what I love so much about statistics: getting to play in the backyard of other research fields while applying my own skills and expertise to their problems. The support of the Goldwater Foundation validates that the work I find so important and fulfilling deserves to continue to be explored and researched.”
Sudhin’s current research projects started in August 2022 through a directed study on generalized linear models under the guidance of Abhyuday Mandal, professor of statistics at UGA. As she increased her skills and took a graduate-level machine learning course, in fall 2023 she moved to studying the applications of particle swarm optimization with Mandal and Joshua Lukemire, assistant research professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at Emory University. She is now developing a global optimization technique for identifying efficient designs, called d-QPSO, with both Mandal and Lukemire. She was able to expand on her research in 2024 as a CURO Summer Fellow.
As president of Codehub, she develops weekly Python and exploratory data analysis lesson plans to support students’ personal projects in the School of Computing. She has previously served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for software development under the UGA School of Computing. Sudhin received the Kossack Prize for excelling in a calculus competition and the Hollingsworth Award for being a top-performing student in upper-division math classes at UGA. Her first research experience was as a data analytics intern with scoutSMART, a college recruiting analytics startup company in Atlanta. This position began in high school, and she completed her research on special teams positions and their recruiting changes in October 2022.
Additionally, she was secretary of Asha for Education Athens and has served as treasurer for the UGA Statistics Club. Now, she is co-president of Cine Club, a student-organized film club that has raised upward of $200 per screening to help support Cine, the independent arthouse cinema in downtown Athens, one of only two remaining in the state of Georgia.
For more information on the Goldwater Scholarship, visit https://goldwaterscholarship.gov/.
UGA’s major scholarships office, housed in the Morehead Honors College, provides students across campus with assistance as they apply for national, high-level scholarships. For more information, contact Jessica Hunt at jhunt@uga.edu or visit https://honors.uga.edu/scholarships/external-scholarships/.
