Carter Gray - 2026 Goldwater Scholar

Carter Gray, from Olathe, is the son of John and Maureen Gray and a graduate of Olathe North High School. Gray is a sophomore majoring in applied computing with a focus in chemistry. He plans to pursue a doctorate in biophysics and work on cutting-edge research to understand protein mutations and their applications in personalized medicine. Carter started his research journey during high school in the Swint-Kruse lab at KU Medical Center, where he worked on developing a set of novel transcription factors for synthetic biology. Motivated to continue his work in the Swint-Kruse lab, Carter spearheaded a collaboration with the Egan lab at KU Lawrence. During this time, Carter was named a 2025-2026 Data Science scholar from K-INBRE, funding his second project that works to identify patient-derived mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 main protease to further understand pathogen evolution. Outside of research, Carter is a University Scholar, a SELF Engineering Leadership Fellow, a member of the KU Marching Jayhawks, co-founder of the Kansas Research Collective, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and a University Honors Program student. He has also received an Undergraduate Research Award and the KU Chancellor Scholarship for academic merit. 

More information about Carter:

• He is currently in an HHMI Cech Fellow at the Boudker Lab at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, New York, where he researches the structural dynamics of membrane transporter proteins.
• He plays trumpet in the Marching Jayhawks.
• His favorite study spot in Lawrence is La Prima Tazza.
• He is looking forward to attending the Gibbs thermodynamics conference in September 2026.