When psychology and neuroscience junior Ranesh Mopuru applied for the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship, he kept his expectations modest. He remembers telling Lauren Ellman and Ingrid Olson, the principal investigators (PIs) of the labs where he conducts research, that he planned to apply.
“I said, ‘Hey, Ingrid and Lauren, I’m going to apply to this award, but I probably won’t get it,’” Mopuru says. “Their attitude was that applying for these things is like a dartboard. You just keep shooting, and you’re not always going to hit the bullseye, but all it takes is one bullseye.”
The Barry Goldwater Scholarship, however, is no ordinary bullseye. It is one of the most prestigious national undergraduate scholarships available to students in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics, awarded to exceptional sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research-focused careers.
Working closely with mentors like Ellman and Olson, Mopuru began the extensive application process. He was selected as one of four nominees from Temple University, taking part in intensive workshops to improve his application alongside fellow nominees and prior Goldwater winners. Today, Mopuru is the first-ever student from the College of Liberal Arts to receive the award.
“It’s been pretty surreal,” he says.
He is also quick to point out that he didn’t do it alone—that the Goldwater is a culmination of the support and community he has felt throughout what has been a remarkably productive undergraduate career at Temple: “Everyone has been incredibly supportive, and I wouldn’t be here without any of their contributions to the research I’ve been doing and also helping them do.”
From Bengaluru to Broad Street
Though born in the U.S., Mopuru’s family relocated to Bengaluru, India, when he was eleven. His fascination with the brain took hold in his later high school years. Looking to explore beyond what his school’s curriculum offered, Mopuru set his sights on the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences (NIMHANS), a world-renowned hospital located in Bengaluru.
“It was in my city, so I thought it would be worth a shot to see if I could do anything or shadow anyone,” says Mopuru. “One thing led to another, and I was able to work with a professor during COVID and even write a few things. It was mostly about getting hands-on experience, learning what the research process was like and seeing if it was something I’d want to pursue.”
Needless to say, it was. “That’s what made me decide I wanted to do this as a career.”
Mopuru was still a U.S. citizen and knew he wanted to return to America for college. He was accepted into multiple neuroscience and psychology programs, but there were a few important factors beyond his field of study that weighed into his decision. He knew he wanted to live in a major city, not only for the resources it would offer someone coming to the country alone with no local family or support system, but also for the vibrant cultural experience it could provide.
“Temple particularly stuck out to me because it’s such a big university and it’s extremely diverse,” explains Mopuru, “which I really appreciated coming from a unique background myself. I didn’t want to be in a homogeneous college; I wanted something that would offer a variety of experiences, something enriching.”
Hitting the Ground Researching
After accepting his offer from Temple, Mopuru wasted no time getting involved.
“I reached out to Lauren Ellman within the first week after accepting, and said, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m an incoming freshman—do you think you have a spot in your lab?’” recalls Mopuru. “It worked out, and I haven’t looked back since.”
The Ellman Lab at Temple focuses on environmental and biological factors that contribute to the development of mental disorders. There, Mopuru researched the impact maternal inflammation had on adolescent substance abuse.
“That project was purely psychology; at that point, I wasn’t fully developed from a neuroscience perspective,” says Mopuru, “but we had some really cool findings, and to contextualize these findings, I thought, you need the brain.”
That realization pushed Mopuru deeper into neuroscience. He found a mentor in Blake Elliott, a post-doctoral fellow in the Ellman Lab, to work with him on the neuroimaging aspect of his research.
“Working with Blake, we found really robust associations with maternal inflammation and brain changes in the reward circuitry of their offspring,” says Mopuru. “Even sixty years later, which is pretty crazy when you think about it.”
Eventually, Mopuru decided that he didn’t want to stop at studying factors that influence reward circuitry—he wanted to study the reward circuitry itself. In his sophomore year, he connected with Linda Hoffman, a graduate student who was doing work that interested him in Temple’s Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. That led to a meeting with the lab’s primary investigator, Ingrid Olson, and Mopuru joining the lab in October of 2024.
Working across Ellman and Olson’s labs has afforded Mopuru an interdisciplinary approach to his research, bridging clinical psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
“It’s synergistic; one lab’s work informs the other lab’s work and vice versa,” he says. “It’s been extremely productive, and we have a lot of stuff coming out.”
Feeling Like a Scientist
Mopuru’s work has already reached audiences well beyond Temple. With his work in the Ellman Lab and then with Elliott, Mopuru had his first opportunities to present his projects at national and international conferences.
“It felt really good because that was my first time actually feeling like a scientist,” he says. “It’s one thing to do research in a lab, and it’s another thing to be in a room full of PhDs and people whose work you read all the time, actually engaging with you and your research.”
He has continued to present his work at some of the largest conferences in the field, including the Society for Neuroscience and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. In late April, he will present at the Society of Biological Psychiatry’s 2026 Annual Meeting in New York. Through these experiences, Mopuru has been able to develop a professional network while his career is only just getting off the ground.
“I’ve gotten to talk to so many PI’s who I will eventually apply to for grad school, and it’s so nice that they know who I am and the work that I do,” says Mopuru. “I’m eternally fortunate that, as an undergrad, I have the opportunity to form and build my network in meaningful ways.”
Looking Ahead
With the support of the Goldwater, Mopuru hopes to continue his research in reward processing and motivated behaviors and hone in further on neuroimaging and neuroimaging methods. He will be applying to graduate schools this upcoming cycle.
On a larger scale, his goals have been shaped by the support he has received at Temple.
“I’ve been lucky to have the coolest people as colleagues. I feel like my labs are almost a second family to me, and they’re my biggest support system,” says Mopuru. “The significant impact that these people have had on me, I want to have on other students in the future.”
He hopes to one day be the PI of his own lab, mentoring students and creating opportunities for future generations of scientists like himself.
“That’s all I really want, just an outlet to be able to pursue the science I care about.”