As a freshman, entering a classroom full of juniors can be intimidating.

Physics major Anya Burkart, now an Arts & Sciences senior, remembers being nervous when she walked into her first physics class at Creighton in 2007.

That initial nervousness eventually paid off. Burkart has gone on to win a 2010 Goldwater Scholarship and a 2010 Society of Physics Students Outstanding Student Award for Undergraduate Research, among other awards.

More recently, Burkart won first place in the annual IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, which held a conference in Grand Island, Neb., this September.

Burkart worked with physics professor Dr. Michael Nichols and presented her research on biophysical optics in the INBRE poster presentation category.

Burkart’s success at INBRE is just one of her many accomplishments. Along with physics, she is also majoring in German. In the summer of 2009, Burkart traveled to Germany under a DAAD scholarship to further her research.

Knowing German will help her with scientific research.

“English is the number one language for science, and German is number two,” Burkart said. “There were studies that would be completely in German and had no English translation. My German improved a lot during my stay.”

Following graduation in May, Burkart plans to intern during the summer for a biotechnology company in Germany. She then hopes to attend graduate school for biomedical engineering.

“I like to come up with ideas and see what happens instead of getting caught up in the ivory tower reading and studying others,” Burkart said. “I want to focus on the application of my ideas. Without the application part, I get bored with my work.”

Burkart praised the Physics Department for its dedication to the students and for fostering students’ development.

“The professors are committed to our growth. Our success is a reflection of our professors. We aren’t easy to work with. It takes time to teach us. The professors invest in us so we can strive,” Burkart said.

Burkart also said she values the bioscience entrepreneurship program taught by Dr. Anne York of the College of Business. In the program, students learn the non-scientific side to their studies and how to bring their ideas to the market, as well as patents, licensing and marketing that apply to their inventions and research.

This directly applies to students like Burkart.

“I want to invent something someday,” she said.