Third Consecutive Honors College Student Receives NOAA Scholarship

By: Crystal Baity, ECU News Services

The following blog post was originally an ECU News Services story titled Exceptional Scholar: Student receives prestigious national scholarship, internship. Photo by Cliff Hollis.

An Honors College student from Vanceboro is the third consecutive East Carolina University student to be awarded a prestigious scholarship and internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Andrew Reid has received the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship, which provides $16,000 for his junior and senior years and a 10-week paid internship in 2016 with NOAA, the federal science agency responsible for the conditions of the oceans and atmosphere, including weather, fisheries and marine protected areas.

Reid, who is majoring in chemistry, is one of 150 recipients from across the country. Only about 10 percent of applicants are selected, said Dr. Tim Runyan, Honors College professor and scholarship advisor.

“Andrew is an exceptional student with a wide range of talents including athletics,” Runyan said. Reid was a walk-on member of the ECU football team.

Reid’s research interest is ocean acidification and how to prevent it. “With increased carbon dioxide, it causes the PH level of the ocean to go down and become more acidic and makes it harder for organisms to exist,” he said.

Reid, who is considering a career in medicine, volunteers at the Pirate Tutoring Center and received an undergraduate award in chemistry in 2013. He is an undergraduate research assistant in ECU chemistry professor Art Rodriguez’s research group.

Rodriguez said he has been impressed by Reid’s research independence and creative thinking skills. At ECU’s undergraduate research symposium this spring, Reid presented his work on a compound that experimentally has been shown to act as a contrasting agent. The compound has the potential to determine the presence or absence of brain tumors.

“Andrew is one of the hardest working undergraduate students that I have had the pleasure of knowing,” Rodriguez said. “His laboratory skills are outstanding. Andrew is a quick learner, a conscientious researcher and a reliable worker.”

A West Craven High School graduate, Reid is the son of Hank and Ivy Reid.

Reid joins ECU senior Chris Thaxton and recent graduate Thomas Vaughan as recipients of the Hollings scholarships.

For more information on the Hollings Scholarship, visithttp://www.oesd.noaa.gov/scholarships/hollings.html#page=program.

To learn more about ECU’s Honors College, go to http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/honors/.