Two KU juniors to compete for Astronaut Scholarships

LAWRENCE — Two outstanding University of Kansas undergraduates, recently named 2022 Goldwater Scholars, are representing KU in the Astronaut Scholarship program. 

The six surviving members of the Mercury 7 mission founded the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation in 1984 as a means to encourage students to pursue scientific endeavors to keep the U.S. on the leading edge of technology. Astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Space Shuttle programs have joined the foundation, which has awarded $4 million in scholarships to more than 400 of the nation’s top scholars. 

The two students: 

• Mary Sevart, a junior majoring in chemical engineering
• Kade Townsend, a junior majoring in microbiology 

With the support of the ASF, up to two KU undergraduate students will be selected to receive up to a $15,000 scholarship during their junior or senior year. Nominations were sought from faculty members in all STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — for students with exceptional academic records and considerable research experience. A committee coordinated by the Office of Fellowships and chaired by Steven Hawley, KU professor of physics and former astronaut, selected the university’s candidates for the award. The winners of the scholarship will be announced later this spring. 

The ASF Board of Directors selected KU to join the program based upon the excellence of the university's STEM academic programs for undergraduates and the strong research capabilities and opportunities for undergraduate students. Admission into the scholarship program is highly competitive, and only the top research universities in the country are chosen to participate. 

Mary Sevart, from Wichita, is the daughter of Eric and Karen Sevart and a graduate of Maize High School. Sevart is majoring in chemical engineering with plans to pursue a doctorate in the same field. As a freshman, she joined the KU Biodiesel Initiative lab of founding faculty member Susan Williams, Charles E. & Mary Jane Spahr Professor of Engineering, and currently serves as the testing lab manager. Specifically, Sevart participates in research initiatives under the guidance of Williams with a focus on creating a potential fuel source from thermochemical processing of hemp biomass after CBD oil extraction. She also is the recruitment chair of KU's Society of Women Engineers and serves as an ambassador for the KU School of Engineering. This spring, Sevart was awarded the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship and earned an Undergraduate Research Award through the KU Center for Undergraduate Research. In fall 2021, she won first place in the poster competition at the national conference for the Society of Women Engineers and received a scholarship from the Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel in fall 2020. This past summer, Sevart completed an internship at Spirit AeroSystems, and she looks forward to participating in an internship at the National Weather Service in summer 2022 through the NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship program. In March 2022, Sevart was named a Goldwater Scholar.

Kade Townsend, from Topeka, is the son of Hollee and Ryan Townsend and a graduate of Seaman High School. Townsend, a recent Goldwater Scholarship recipient, is majoring in microbiology and plans to pursue a doctorate focusing on bacterial genetics research. As a freshman Emerging Scholar, Townsend joined the Chandler Lab, led by Josephine Chandler, associate professor of molecular biosciences, and has continued to be an important contributor to the lab’s research on antibiotic-resistant pathogens. He has participated in oral and poster presentations alongside the research team at national conferences, as a Maximizing Access to Research Career Scholar and McNair Scholar. He was the 2021 SACNAS Outstanding Presentation Award recipient for his poster presentation titled “Adaptive mutation which alters tobramycin susceptibility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa,” and he earned the Courtwright Award for outstanding research among other Undergraduate Research Award winners.