2026 Goldwater Scholarship Nominees
Megan Farrington, E’27, electrical engineering and physics, and Maren Ritterbuck, E’27, bioengineering and biochemistry were nominated for the 2026 Barry Goldwater Scholarship—a highly competitive, merit-based award for outstanding students in mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering who are interested in pursuing careers in research.
Megan Farrington, COE’27, Electrical Engineering and Physics
Mentors: Marco Colangelo, Johan Bonilla Castro, Camille Gómez-Laberge, Marcel di Vece
Home State: Colorado
Megan Farrington is a third-year Electrical Engineering and Physics student and a member of the Northeastern University John Martinson Honors Program. She is passionate about building precision quantum devices to accelerate technological advancement in fields including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and precision sensing. Megan began her research career in the X-Platform Magnonics Laboratory, studying the integration of magnetic and microwave devices with applications in spintronics and quantum computing. She earned her first PEAK Summit award to help the Northeastern University Mars Rover Team overhaul their Inverse Kinematics system by using lie groups to resolve angle-wrapping problems. She then completed a co-op in the di Vece lab at the Università degli Studi di Milano Statale, studying the applications of confinement effects in germanium nanoparticles. Her second PEAK Summit award will allow her to design, simulate, and fabricate a superconducting traveling-wave parametric isolator in Dr. Colangelo’s lab to address the lack of microwave signal-processing components compatible with quantum computing environments. She currently works in the Stevenson lab studying the phenomenon of spin selection in chiral ruthenium complexes, with possible applications in spintronics. Megan plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Quantum Engineering so she can continue designing devices to advance science and technology. Outside of her research, Megan is an active member of the Northeastern University Mars Rover Team, where she writes and tests high-level software to control the prototype rover at international competitions. When not on campus, you can usually find her curled up with a good book.
Maren Ritterbuck COE’27, Bioengineering and Biochemistry
Mentors: Sandra Shefelbine, James Monaghan, Michael Albro
Home State: California
Maren Ritterbuck is a fourth-year Bioengineering and Biochemistry double major, passionate about translating how skeletal tissues respond to mechanical forces into therapies for musculoskeletal disorders. Her interest in mechanobiology stemmed from a fascination with human movement. Whether pushing herself in sports or physically demanding emergency response jobs, she was captivated by how the body could perform at its peak and, when pushed too far, heal itself. In the Albro Lab at Boston University, Maren researched cartilage mechanobiology, investigating how changes in cartilage composition affect mechanical properties. Her work contributed to the development of a promising osteoarthritis diagnostic tool using Raman Spectroscopy. As an AJC Merit Research Scholar in the Shefelbine lab, Maren expanded her research to bone biomechanics. In collaboration with the Monaghan lab, she examines how bone regeneration in axolotls is affected by the ability to sense mechanics. Supported by a PEAK Summit award, she also leads a project optimizing light-sheet fluorescence microscopy protocols to allow for structural preservation of a sample during imaging. By preserving the native 3D-mechanical environment of samples, her work enables greater mechanobiology insight. She has presented her research at various national conferences and was recognized as a finalist at the ASME SB3C conference. Maren plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomechanics where she can apply the techniques she has developed to investigate how manipulation of mechanosensitive pathways could provide regenerative therapies. Outside of her research, Maren co-founded Northeastern’s Pre-MD/PhD Association, is an URF Ambassador, and jumps at any opportunity to travel, scuba dive, or run along the Charles River.