U of M student wins prestigious scholarship in STEM
Blake Robinson is just like any other 20-year-old college student. When he's not studying, he's weightlifting and spending time with his friends.
He's also busy conducting research at the University of Memphis, focusing on wound treatment and assisting with research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to find treatments for epilepsy.
'I try and look at the end goal and try to enjoy myself along the way,' said Blake Robinson.
So, maybe he's not the average 20-year-old.
Blake is on a mission to change lives. He's already making his mark in the world of STEM and is one of more than 400 students nationwide to receive a 2025 Goldwater Scholarship.
According to the Scholarship website, the program is one of the 'oldest' and 'most prestigious' national scholarships in the STEM field in the US.
Retired Memphis man gives back with free food truck meals
The foundation says they look for students who have the potential to make a 'significant future contribution to research.'
Blake met all of the criteria, making him the first Goldwater Scholar at the University of Memphis in over a decade.
'I think it was that continual reaching for improvement that over time really built me,' he said.
The Bartlett High School graduate says that when he enrolled at the U of M, he immediately started looking at various research labs, and that's when he came across Biomedical Engineering Professor Dr. Joel Bumgardner's work.
'This is where we take shrimp exoskeleton and we're trying to turn that into a wound treatment,' Blake said. 'You could use this for surgical treatments, for burns, for military applications out in the field… sort of taking what nature already has to offer and reinventing that for medicine, that was really inspirational for me.'
Blake says his interest in medicine started with his mother, who works in the medical field.
'But it really wasn't until my mother was diagnosed with two brain aneurysms, unruptured aneurysms, that I kind of looked towards research,' he said.
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Ever since, he's been working to obtain an MD-PhD in Neurosciences by participating in various research programs and shadowing different physicians.
Trying to balance school, his research, and a personal life has been challenging, but he says the support of his mentors keeps him pushing forward.
'It's more so an impact of how these individuals are really pushing the field forward, as well. They're more so leading me,' said Blake.
Blake has a busy year ahead of him as he plans to graduate a year early. The University says this Summer, he's heading to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend Harvard's Biomedical Summer Research Program.
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