Annabelle Recinos, a civil engineering student, was awarded a prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship. She joins a list of a few elite students from CSUF who have won the Goldwater Scholarship since 1986. The Goldwater reviewers faced the difficult task of selecting scholarship recipients from a pool of 1,242 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 433 institutions across the country.
Established by Congress in 1986 in honor of former U.S. Senator and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, the Goldwater Scholarship was created to encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering, and to foster excellence in those fields. Scholarships are awarded based on merit to students who are sophomores or juniors during the current academic year, who have excellent academic records, and who have a demonstrated interest in and potential for research careers in the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. The scholarship covers eligible undergraduate expenses for tuition, fees, books, and room and board to a maximum of $7,500 per academic year.
Annabelle’s area of research looks explicitly at materials in the transportation industry. Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) is a new mix of more durable concrete than traditional concrete, as it has added steel fibers. She would like to research and design UHPC mixtures that would use municipal waste. Her research would help the aging transportation infrastructure problems in the U.S. while also utilizing recycled waste resources. She hopes to attain her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering to become an independent researcher and improve transportation infrastructure and materials in the industry.