UTEP Students, Alumni Earn Prestigious Goldwater and National Science Foundation Fellowships
Awards recognize student excellence in research, support further study
EL PASO, Texas (April 29, 2025) – Five current students and recent graduates from The University of Texas at El Paso have received two of the most highly competitive national scholarships for research in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) — the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP).
“These students have taken advantage of exceptional opportunities to prepare themselves at UTEP,” said UTEP President Heather Wilson. “They are exceptional and have bright futures.”
Goldwater and NSF GRFP recipients received comprehensive guidance throughout the application process from the University’s Office of Student Fellowships and Awards (OSFA). The office’s mission is to make UTEP students and recent alumni aware of nationally competitive scholarships for which they are qualified and provide support as they prepare their application materials.
“I am thrilled for these students and recent alumni for receiving these highly selective STEM awards at the national level,” said Jen Green, OSFA Director. “I am also grateful to everyone who applied and their faculty research mentors for their hard work to increase our participation in the Goldwater and NSF GRFP competitions.”
More information on the services provided by the fellowships office is available here.
Goldwater Scholar: Victoria Villagomez
The Goldwater Scholarship is awarded to sophomores and juniors active in undergraduate research and provides up to $7,500 annually for tuition and fees.
Villagomez is a senior studying environmental science with a geology focus. She is the fourth UTEP student in the University’s history to be selected for the Goldwater Scholarship. While working as a fellow at the University of Alaska last summer, Villagomez devised a research project to study bio-indicators, or organisms, that can reveal oil contamination in the Arctic region. Her research mentors are Craig Tweedie, Ph.D., Sergio Vargas Zesati, Ph.D. and Katherine Young, Ph.D.
After graduating in December 2025, Villagomez plans to pursue a Ph.D. in environmental science with a focus on climate change.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
The NSF GRFP is awarded to undergraduate seniors and first- or second-year graduate students. It provides three years of funding for a research-based master’s degree or Ph.D. in an eligible STEM field.
The 2025 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships were awarded to the following four UTEP students and recent alumni.
Ana Paola Aranzola
Aranzola graduated from UTEP in December of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in mathematics. She was the University’s first-ever recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship and participated in 3D printing research under the guidance of Eric MacDonald, Ph.D., Alexis Maurel, Ph.D., and Ana Martinez, Ph.D., in the College of Engineering. Aranzola is currently an intern at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and will start a doctoral program at Stanford University in the fall. Her current research focuses on 3D printed actuators, which are devices that convert energy into force and have applications in biomedical systems, space structures and smart materials.
Stephanie Gonzalez
Gonzalez graduated from UTEP in May of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace and Aeronautical Engineering and is currently pursuing a doctorate in aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. At UTEP, she was mentored by Yirong Lin, Ph.D., and Anabel Renteria, Ph.D., in the aerospace and mechanical engineering department. In 2021, seh was awarded a Terry Scholarship, which provides funding and mentorship for outstanding students who show promise of being future leaders in Texas. Gonzalez’s research focuses on life support and low-gravity fluid systems in space.
Hashel Orquiz
Orquiz graduated from UTEP in May of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and is currently a postbaccalaurate researcher at UTEP working with biology Professor Michael Moody, Ph.D. Her research focuses on plant genetics and how plant communities in the Arctic shift in response to environmental change.
This fall, she will begin a Ph.D. in conservation genomics at the University of California, Merced.
Omar Salas
Salas graduated from UTEP in December of 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Mathematics. Under the guidance of Harikrishnan Nair, Ph.D., his research focused on making crystals for use in batteries. In the summer of 2024, Salas participated in an summer research program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, conduct further research on batteries and one day become a tenured professor at a university.
About The University of Texas at El Paso
The University of Texas at El Paso is America’s leading Hispanic-serving university. Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande, 84% of our 25,000 students are Hispanic, and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. UTEP offers 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.
Last Updated on April 30, 2025 at 12:00 AM | Originally published April 30, 2025
By MC Staff UTEP Marketing and Communications
