{"288791":{"#nid":"288791","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Former Petit Scholar Najia Named Goldwater Scholar","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EMohamad Ali Najia, an Honor\u0027s Program undergraduate in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, has earned the \u0026nbsp;prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for his work in science and engineering. Najia chose to enroll at Georgia Tech in 2010 because of the biomedical engineering department\u2019s reputation and research opportunities. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cIt has always been my long-term plan to go on to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering,\u201d Najia said. He was first drawn to this area of study in high school as he learned about the potential of stem cells and their role in curing disease.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIn his first semester, Najia joined Associate Professor Todd McDevitt\u2019s \u0022Engineering Stem Cell Technologies\u0022 laboratory, where he was worked with mentor Jenna Wilson, a Ph.D. candidate in Georgia Tech\u0027s BioEngineering Graduate Program. Najia\u2019s research project, \u201cInfluencing encapsulated stem cell factor secretion through hypoxic conditioning,\u201d was to design a culture environment that would generate a greater impact on tissue regeneration. Soon after joining the McDevitt lab, Najia was selected as a Beckman Coulter Petit Undergraduate Research Scholar in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p2\u0022\u003EThe Petit Scholars program is a competitive, full-year independent research opportunity for elite undergraduate students in bioengineering and bioscience who are mentored by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The Petit Institute has sponsored this program since 2000 and has successfully supported the research of over 200 young scientists, many of whom have gone on to distinguished careers in academics, medicine and industry.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0022To earn a Goldwater Scholarship is an extreme honor, and one that could not have been accomplished without the supportive community at Georgia Tech,\u0022 Najia stated.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThroughout his undergraduate career, Najia has focused on his dream of generating fully functional tissues for implantation into patients, with the goal of curbing a nationwide allograft shortage, improving patient recovery, and saving lives. \u0026nbsp;He hopes to become a professor with a lab focused on genome engineering and is already excited to mentor the next generation of scientists.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EIn addition to his research activities, Najia went on to become editor-in-chief of The Tower, Tech\u2019s peer-reviewed undergraduate research journal, and, last summer, he was a bioinformatics fellow through the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cI am incredibly grateful for the institutional support, both through the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, the Biomedical Engineering department and Georgia Tech as a whole,\u201d he said. \u201cMost importantly, I am thankful for the mentorship of several faculty members, including Georgia Tech faculty members, Todd McDevitt and Brani Vidakovic.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ENamed for U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, the Goldwater Scholarship is awarded to students in science, mathematics and engineering who intend to pursue research careers in their fields, with the intent of providing a continuing source of highly qualified scholars in these areas.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Mohamad Ali Najia, an Honor\u0027s Program undergraduate in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, has earned the  prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EMohamad Ali Najia, an Honor\u0027s Program undergraduate in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, has earned the \u0026nbsp;prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for his work in science and engineering. Najia chose to enroll at Georgia Tech in 2010 because of the biomedical engineering department\u2019s reputation and research opportunities.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Mohamad Ali Najia, an Honor\u0027s Program undergraduate in Georgia Tech\u2019s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, has earned the  prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship."}],"uid":"27224","created_gmt":"2014-04-07 11:51:34","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:11","author":"Megan McDevitt","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-04-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-04-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"288801":{"id":"288801","type":"image","title":"Mohamad","body":null,"created":"1449244254","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:50:54","changed":"1475894983","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:43","alt":"Mohamad","file":{"fid":"199170","name":"14c10304-p1-001_1_-_copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/14c10304-p1-001_1_-_copy_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/14c10304-p1-001_1_-_copy_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2264474,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/14c10304-p1-001_1_-_copy_0.jpg?itok=_5WqjXa6"}},"288811":{"id":"288811","type":"image","title":"Mohamad and Jenna","body":null,"created":"1449244274","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:51:14","changed":"1475894983","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:43","alt":"Mohamad and Jenna","file":{"fid":"199171","name":"mohamadnajiajennywilson_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mohamadnajiajennywilson_0_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mohamadnajiajennywilson_0_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4348,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mohamadnajiajennywilson_0_0.jpg?itok=01Fa75xF"}}},"media_ids":["288801","288811"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/ibb.gatech.edu\/petit-scholars","title":"Petit Scholars website"},{"url":"http:\/\/ibb.gatech.edu\/","title":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"url":"http:\/\/bme.gatech.edu\/","title":"Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University"},{"url":"mailto:mcdevitt@gatec.edu","title":"McDevitt Engineering Stem Cell Technologies Laboratory"},{"url":"https:\/\/goldwater.scholarsapply.org\/","title":"About the Goldwater Scholarship"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"2389","name":"goldwater"},{"id":"6217","name":"McDevitt"},{"id":"91111","name":"Najia"},{"id":"857","name":"Petit Scholars"},{"id":"453","name":"undergraduate research"},{"id":"548","name":"vidakovic"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:colly.mitchell@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EColly Mitchell\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMarketing and Events\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}