By the age of 17, Madhavi Gavini had already discovered what some call a medical breakthrough and Celeste Lipkes assembled a 70-page portfolio reflecting on physical loss. In recognition of these achievements, the two are the first-ever Hopkins students to be awarded the Davidson Fellow Laureate Scholarship.
The Davidson award is given to students under the age of 18 who submit a project that is recognized by experts in the field as significant and as having the potential to make a positive contribution to society.
For her work in literature, Lipkes received a $25,000 scholarship, while Gavini was awarded $50,000 for her achievements in science.
The two attended a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, when they were officially awarded their scholarships.
"We hope that by serving gifted students, they can achieve goals and be in the forefront of their fields," Davidson Fellows Program Manager Tacie Moessner said.
"We basically award this scholarship to students who have been doing graduate-level work already."
Work like that of Gavini, who started a project two years ago that used traditional Indian medical cures to engineer a method to inhibit the growth of biofilm-forming pathogens.
After a friend was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, Gavini learned that most victims of the disease die from pseudomonas infections.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic, multi-drug resistant pathogen that produces biofilms which protect it from antibiotics. The pathogen is a leading cause of death among patients with compromised immune systems, such as those with AIDS, cancer and cystic fibrosis.
Eager to do something to help, Gavini found inspiration in the traditional medicine used by family members.
"I was heavily influenced by my grandparents since they practiced traditional Indian medicine and I spent a lot of time with them when I was growing up," Gavini said.
She turned to Ayurvedic medicine, an ancient medical practice still common on the Indian subcontinent today, after watching her grandparents work with herbal remedies. She obtained a strain of Pseudomonas bacteria from Mississippi State University and began subjecting the bacteria to plant extracts.
As Gavini began researching at both the Mississippi School of Math and Science and Mississippi State University, she could not draw herself away. "I worked after school. I lived at a boarding school and the place was just two minutes away. I'd go there on weekends and on holidays. I was lucky to have access to all the equipment," Gavini said.
By combining traditional Indian medicine and molecular biology to identify Terminalia chebula a compound capable of penetrating and inhibiting the growth of the biofilm.
This compound, Gavini hopes, could be used in inhalers and antiseptic sprays to treat millions of people suffering from the chronic infections.
Gavini wants to publish her work to make it public rather than making millions from a patent so that her findings can be openly accessible for use by others.
As Lipkes headed to Washington, D.C. for the first time ever, she seemed more excited about being with her parents for the first time since heading off to college. "This is the biggest gift, being with my parents," she said.
The Davidson Fellows Program was about to give her another gift in recognizing her success in the field of literature. Lipkes assembled a 65- to 70-page portfolio, entitled Room to Pace. Composed mostly of poetry, the portfolio also includes personal essays that reflect on illness, physical loss and family life.
Lipkes, whose parents are both writers, has been motivated by the need to write ever since she first took classes in middle school. "When you write, you please yourself and you please your audience. You do it for fun but you also do it because you feel like you have to," Lipkes said.
"I've been trying to use more science in my writing because I really love biology," Lipkes said animatedly.
"Most people think it's weird that I'm majoring in neuroscience and Writing Seminars, but I don't think it's strange because when you're writing, you're getting closer to how the mind works."
Gavini returned to the lab last summer and is waiting for her data and experiments to be analyzed. She was working on papers about the identification of Terminalia chebula's ability to inhibit the Pseudomonas infection, the genes it affects and its mechanisms.
Gavini, who is majoring in molecular and cell biology at Hopkins, hopes to pursue a career in biomedical research.
Lipkes was also recently awarded the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship from Hopkins and a Silver Award in Poetry from The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. She hopes for a career that involves both science and literature.
The Davidson Fellow Laureate Scholarship was created in 2001 by a wife-and-husband team, Jan and Bob Davidson.
A former teacher, Jan Davidson worked extensively with the creation of the Math Blaster and Reading Blaster computer game series.
The couple created the Davidson Fellow Laureate Scholarship when they saw students succeeding without recognition.
