Lake County Gazette

Kate Feist '27 has been named a 2025 Goldwater Scholarship recipient for her research on the causes of Parkinson's disease. The Goldwater Foundation awarded 441 tuition scholarships to college students across the United States for the 2025-2026 academic year, selecting winners from a pool of over 5,000 applicants.

The Scholarship Program honoring Senator Barry Goldwater supports outstanding undergraduates pursuing research careers in sciences, engineering, and mathematics. It is considered the preeminent undergraduate award in these fields.

Feist is the only student from a small liberal arts college in Illinois selected this year and one of five students from the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) consortium to earn a Goldwater Scholarship.

"I'm very grateful to be nominated by and represent Lake Forest College for this award, and to be selected by the Goldwater Foundation--especially since I am surrounded by an incredible community of talented and dedicated peers at the College," she said.

Feist earned her scholarship for research conducted over the past year and proposed research in Disque D. and Carol Gram Deane Professor of Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Neuroscience Shubhik DebBurman's "D-Lab," located on the second floor of the Lillard Science Center.

"The Goldwater is simply the most prestigious and unbelievably competitive scholarship in the nation for students that plan to pursue PhDs in STEM fields," DebBurman said. "As Kate's academic and research advisor, I am absolutely delighted but not surprised that she was selected, despite being a sophomore. "

"She is a truly exceptional scholar with a laser-sharp focus who has displayed a rare level of intellectual rigor and infectious love of scientific process and discovery," DebBurman added. "Her work ethic stood out within days of joining my research team at the end of her first year. She has already presented at a national meeting and independently carved out an ambitious, original, and innovative two-year project that could push boundaries of knowledge in Parkinson's disease. "

"I joined the D-Lab as a Richter Scholar after my freshman year," Feist said. "I immediately started doing complex biology work on mutagenesis genetic engineering. I wrote about that in my Goldwater application and also laid out some ideas that I have for future research in the lab. "

Mutagenesis genetic engineering involves intentionally inducing mutations in an organism's DNA.

"I suggested new ways to look at the molecular structure of alpha-synuclein, which is one of the proteins that can cause Parkinson's disease," Feist explained. "I wrote out a proposal for modifying this protein to examine potential effects on its aggregation and toxicity. "

Feist will spend 10 weeks this summer working in the lab to explore these ideas further.

"I do enjoy doing research," she said. "It's nice to have that time with no other classes--or no other distractions really--that I can just focus on research and dedicate all my effort and attention to it. "