The United States has successfully launched six lunar missions — a scientific and engineering legacy that former Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke hopes to foster in the next generation at A&M.

Tuesday morning, Duke will speak about his experiences as a moonwalking astronaut with the Apollo 16 mission. His remarks will be followed by a presentation of two $10,000 in scholarships to Kirstin Maulding and William Linz, whose fields of study intersect with the ASF’s mission to promote science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, among students. 

Maulding, molecular and cell biology senior, said she has been interested in science since she was a child. 

“Ever since I was a little kid, I would go in the backyard and see, if I turn this rock upside down, what kind of stuff would I find,” Maulding said. “My interest, biology specifically, really started in high school because my freshman biology teacher was amazing. That class was the most interesting class I have ever taken in high school.”

In the future, Maulding said she would like to pursue a doctorate in neurobiology. She said she plans to use her knowledge in the field to study the genetic and molecular basis of neurological diseases, with a focus on diseases that affect the mind.

The other recipient is William Linz, mathematics senior. Linz said he found his love for mathematics early in his lifetime, similar to Maulding. 

“When I was in middle school, and really the end of elementary school, I was always interested in looking at patterns and numbers,” Linz said. “Like the fact that if you sum up however many odd numbers you like, the result will always be a perfect square. I always like looking for patterns like that, I thought they were kind of beautiful in some way.”