Three Miami seniors receive Astronaut Scholarships for 2026
Sara McGinnis, Siena Madsen, and Caden McCollum earn prestigious, merit-based award from Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
Three Miami seniors receive Astronaut Scholarships for 2026
Sara McGinnis, Siena Madsen, and Caden McCollum earn prestigious, merit-based award from Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
Miami University students Sara McGinnis, Siena Madsen, and Caden McCollum have earned Astronaut Scholarships for 2026.
Awarded by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the Astronaut Scholarship is among the most significant merit-based, monetary scholarships awarded to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) juniors and seniors who intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree.
Created in 1984 by the six surviving Mercury 7 astronauts, the foundation’s mission is “to aid the United States in retaining its world leadership in technology and innovation by supporting the very best and brightest scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics while commemorating the legacy of America’s pioneering astronauts.”
Miami is one of the foundation's original university partners, with the first student being awarded a scholarship in 1986. There are currently 55 partner institutions nationally.
Miami is also one of seven partner schools of the foundation's Founders for the Future program. Thanks to a $1 million grant from Blue Origin’s nonprofit Club for the Future, seven additional Astronaut Scholarships — one from each of the seven partner schools — will be provided every year through 2029.
The Astronaut Scholarship is considered one of the premier scholarships available to undergraduate STEM majors intending a career in research.
Sara McGinnis
A senior Physics and Environmental Science double major from Okeana, McGinnis conducts research investigating the properties of topological materials with faculty mentor Perry Corbett.
Corbett, the James C. and Carole E. Garland Assistant Professor of Physics, praised McGinnis for her attention to detail and enthusiasm for research.
“She leads, guides, and directs the project,” Corbett said. “Sara’s one of those rare students who come around once in a career.”
A first-generation student, McGinnis joined two labs her first year at Miami. That helped her gain experience and narrow down research interests.
“Looking back, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I really didn’t have any knowledge of the world of research,” McGinnis said. “I have been able to really grow as a researcher and as a person, and I think that is a direct result of the support that I’ve had at Miami University and in the Physics department.”
Siena Madsen
A senior Chemical Engineering major from Columbus, Madsen’s research focuses on metabolic engineering of psychedelic compounds for mental health treatment.
Madsen, a member of the Honors College, works with mentor Andrew Jones, associate professor of Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering. Jones said Madsen does not shy away from difficult projects, pointing to one of her first lab assignments — a complex experiment using a very instrumented bioreactor.
“I’ve never given a student such a complex, expensive, kind of important experience to start out with. And she took on that challenge,” Jones said. “She quickly learned what was happening with the system and took over ownership and the ability to kind of control those systems. That’s something that often takes students one to two years. She was able to do it in the first couple of months in the lab, which is really impressive.”
One goal of Madsen’s research is to allow for increased clinical trials by helping raise the production levels of certain compounds with traditional clinical synthesis.
“I came to Miami knowing I wanted to get involved in research,” Madsen said. “I never really could have envisioned how far it was going to take me and how much I was going to love it.”
Caden McCollum
A senior Physics and Mathematics double major with a Computer Science minor from Fairfield, McCollum’s research is focused on quantum information science and technologies. McCollum’s mentor is Imran Mirza, associate professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Their work is focused on finding a way to split single photons out of lasers for use in quantum computers.
During his senior year of high school, McCollum participated in the Summer Scholars Program at Miami, including a weeklong program on quantum computing basics. He is also a member of Miami’s Honors College.
“From then on, I was just hooked,” McCollum said. “I was fairly new to the whole realm of physics at the time, but quantum was just so fascinating to me.”
Mirza noted that McCollum has worked with him for three years, and he was able to publish as a first author on two projects.
“He has presented his work nationally in several conferences,” Mirza said. “He has been recognized nationally. He was a Goldwater Scholar last year, and, most recently, selected to do summer research at Purdue University, which is a highly selective program. I cannot think of anybody more fitting and deserving of the Astronaut.”