AI, Innovation and Faculty Mentorship Help Power this Montclair Goldwater Scholar’s Scientific Ambitions
How one Montclair State University student is leveraging artificial intelligence to unlock the mysteries of the universe
Joseph David Quinn-Vitabile came to Montclair State University expecting to study computer science. Now a junior, he’s expanded his academic ambitions to include astrophysics, where he’s helping push the boundaries of how we understand the universe – work that recently earned him a prestigious 2025 Goldwater Scholarship.
Initially drawn to Montclair for its affordability and proximity to his home in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Quinn-Vitabile enrolled as a Computer Science major. Like many Computer Science majors, he set about finding a software engineering internship, thinking that he might work at a tech company after graduation. Though he ended up getting that internship at Johnson & Johnson last spring, he also happened to choose Physics for his elective science course that semester.
I really had a great time in physics. I thought that it was much more interesting than anything I had done yet in computer science. I wanted to continue studying physics, and I saw there was a lot of opportunity to use skills from computation and software to work in physics, whether research or other applications.”
Quinn-Vitabile decided to add the minor in Physics as it would only be a few extra classes. He could continue studying it, meet more people, and get involved in research. And that’s what he did that following summer. “It all happened pretty quickly after that,” he says.