UK junior one of more than 450 nationwide to earn Goldwater Scholarship – UKNow

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 10, 2026) — University of Kentucky junior Jose Villanos was awarded a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. He is one of 454 Goldwater Scholarship recipients nationwide.
Approximately 5,000 college sophomores and juniors applied for the prestigious scholarship, which awards up to $7,500 per year to students planning to pursue research careers in mathematics, engineering or natural science, according to information from the Goldwater Scholarship website.
“This scholarship broadens my prospects for graduate school. It allows me to connect and collaborate with some of the nation’s best researchers,” said Villanos, an agricultural and medical biotechnology major from Sonora, Kentucky. “It will help me get into a doctoral program to continue my work in the life sciences.”
 UK’s Goldwater Scholarship application process is administered by the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards.
Although he grew up surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans in LaRue County, Villanos said he did not, at first, feel a strong connection to agriculture.
“(In high school) I reluctantly joined the agricultural pathway because it involved some STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” he said. “Over those four years, I fell in love with agriculture and life sciences.”
As a first-year student at UK, he was drawn to research.
“Agricultural and medical biotechnology is the perfect home for me, as research is the core focus of the major,” said Villanos, who is also a Lewis Honors College student. “It provides the exact training I need to develop into the best researcher I can be.”
Villanos has latched on to research in the laboratories of two of his professors in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Samuel Revolinksi, Ph.D., and Luke Moe, Ph.D.
“Working with them allowed me to conduct research at Kansas State University over the summer,” Villanos said. He started working in their respective labs as a first-year student.
“I could not have gotten this award without the opportunities they have provided me with,” he said.
Villanos intends to graduate in May 2027, and said he plans to earn a Ph.D. in microbial ecology, researching plant-microbe interactions under environmental stress. He wants to take the baton from his two mentors and lead a lab as a professor at a major research university with a strong national profile.
“I want to continue bringing knowledge into the world and mentor some students along the way,” Villanos said.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It’s all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.

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