Matthew Winterton Receives Goldwater Scholarship

Matthew T. Winterton, one of about 300 Goldwater Scholarship winners nationwide for 2010, is a junior BYU Biochemistry major from Alpharetta, Georgia. Based on his academic record, Matt received a National Institutes of Health biomedical research internship for Summer 2009 in Bethesda, Maryland, where he worked with Dr. Daniel Fowler studying the immunology of stem cell transplantation in cancer therapy.

“I absolutely loved my internship,” said Matt. “I worked with a post-doctoral student and I got a lot of one-on-one time with him so it was really good.” He will be returning to intern at NIH again this summer. During this academic year, Matt has worked in the laboratory of Prof. Greg Burton studying the role of follicular dendritic cells as long-term reservoirs for HIV viruses. His research has produced publication-quality results. Matt served a mission in Madagascar. Based on his language skills in Malagasy, he received an ORCA grant to produce the first Malagasy-English frequency dictionary. He regularly interprets for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and currently teaches an advanced Malagasy language course at BYU. After graduation in 2011, Matt plans to pursue a joint MD/PhD degree from a prestigious medical school and enter a career in biomedical research. When asked where he would like to attend graduate school Matt responded, “I’ll go wherever I’m accepted, but I would love to do the joint program they have at Harvard and MIT.” In addition to his interests in science and languages, Matt is pursuing a music minor, and plays the trumpet in the BYU Wind Symphony. Matt is also involved in a small nonprofit organization that heads a literacy campaign in rural Madagascar.

By Cory Renshaw

Photo courtesy of Matt Winterton