April 01, 2008
Ellowitz, of Newton, receives honorable mention in Goldwater Scholarship competition
Clark University junior Jake E. Ellowitz, of Newton, received an honorable mention from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation for outstanding academic achievement in physics and math.
Established by Congress in 1986 to foster and encourage excellence in science and mathematics, the Foundation's scholarship is highly competitive and widely considered the most prestigious award in the United States conferred upon undergraduates studying the sciences.
Ellowitz is pursuing a double-major in physics and mathematics and has completed research projects in each field. He worked during the summer of 2007 in the laboratory of James Phillips, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, assisting on the development of instrumentation for an experiment to be conducted in a rocket.
Ellowitz is a First Honors Dean's List student at Clark and is a recipient of the Roy S. Andersen '43 Award for outstanding undergraduate physics student. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He also plays electric bass in the Jazz Workshop Combo.
Christopher Landee, professor and chair of the Physics Department at Clark, said that the University's Goldwater Selection Committee praised Ellowitz's "mathematical ability and his ability to solve problems in creative ways" as well as "his enormous enthusiasm for physics and mathematics and his desire 'to know.'"
Ellowitz is the son of David and Jeralyn Ellowitz, of Newton. He is a 2005 graduate of the New Jewish High School/Gann Academy, in Waltham.