Mark Polking, a junior in the College of Engineering, has received a 2004 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, considered the premier undergraduate award in mathematics, science, and engineering.

Polking grew up in Boone, Iowa, and graduated from nearby Ames High School. He is majoring in materials science and engineering, and has been conducting research under Christopher Umbach, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, on the nature of fractures in glass, with the goal of creating more resilient glasses.

In his senior year he hopes to find a research project on electrical and magnetic properties of solids, perhaps with application to superconductors. He also has spent the past two summers in research jobs at the University of Iowa and a nearby Department of Agriculture laboratory. He plans to go on to graduate school, with the eventual goal of becoming a faculty member in a research university in the United States or the United Kingdom.

Polking is a member of the engineering honor society Tau Beta Pi and the Golden Key Honor Society, and he resides in the German Language House. He has worked as a tutor in freshman engineering classes.

—Bill Steele, Cornell News Service