ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Six varsity athletes recently were named Trident Scholars for the 2024-25 academic year.  Selected for the program were Jillian Oncay and Tenlea Radack from the women's rowing team, men's lightweight rower Owen O'Malley, men's diver Zack Peng, Lucas Spiro from the squash team and water polo player Sean O'Boyle.

The Trident Scholar program allows selected Mids to engage in independent study and research during their senior year.  Research and completion of a thesis constitute the major part of the scholar's academic program for the year.  Naval Academy faculty and other area specialists mentor the Trident Scholars helping them expand their knowledge and contribute to their fields of study.  In April of the spring semester, each Trident Scholar presents the results of his or her research in a final written report, a lecture at a Naval Academy conference, and by participating in a poster session prior to a formal dinner.

The Trident Scholar program was established in 1963.  There were 17 Trident Scholars named for the 2024-25 academic year.  

Sean O'Boyle
Academic Major – Applied Physics
Trident Scholar Area of Study – Investigation of Host Protein Cleavage by Neuroinvasive Viruses

Owen O'Malley
Academic Major - Robotics and Control Engineering (Honors)
Trident Scholar Area of Study - Impact of Underwater Optical Turbulence on Properties of Light: Synchronous Measurements of Intensity, Phase, and Orbital Angular Momentum

Jillian Oncay 
Academic Major - Chemistry
Trident Scholar Area of Study - Evaluation of Biobased Polyesters in Additive Manufacturing

Zack Peng 
Academic Major - Chemistry
Research - Development of Microwave-Assisted Concurrent Tandem Catalytic Synthetic Methodology involving Copper for the Formation of Aryl Amines or Biaryl Ethers

Tenlea Radack
Academic Major - Mathematics (Honors)
Trident Scholar Area of Study - Terao's Conjecture: Vector Fields vs Matroids

Lucas Spiro
Academic Major - Astrophysics
Trident Scholar Area of Study - Analyzing CN Coma Morphology to Develop Correlations Between Cometary Age and Dynamical Classification