North Brunswick resident named STEM scholar

A North Brunswick resident has been named to the 2019-20 class of the Governor’s STEM Scholars (GSS) by The Research & Development Council of New Jersey.

Ujjayi Pamidigantam is a junior at Thomas Edison Energysmart Charter School in Somerset. She was the president of the school-wide student council last year.

She is highly interested in robotics. She has been the captain of her school’s team for the last three years. She mentors local FIRST Lego League robotics teams. She conducts STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) outreach events along with her school team to educate younger children about robotics.

She also enjoys the biological sciences, and is studying anatomy and physiology at Raritan Valley Community College (dual enrollment), and is currently doing research at Kean University as part of GSS. Her research is “Synthesis of a Novel CCR1 Antagonist for Treatment of Glioblastoma”

The Governor’s STEM Scholars program is a public-private partnership among the R&D Council of New Jersey, the Governor’s Office, the New Jersey Department of Education, the Office of the Secretary of Higher Education, and Fortune 500 companies, designed to immerse the top STEM talent in grades 10 through the doctoral level in New Jersey’s vast STEM economy and bolster the State’s education and career pipeline. Ujjayi is one of 95 scholars selected this year.

Ujjayi is interested in pursuing further studies in biomedical and health sciences in order to find innovative solutions to global health challenges.

For more information on her designation, visit www.govstemscholars.com/.