The optimism and ambition of this year’s Gates scholars
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.010225
I did my PhD at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy . As a US-based alumnus of the university, I receive the quarterly newsletter Cambridge in America. Most of the newsletter is taken up with bulletins from each of the university’s 31 colleges. The latest issue had a bonus, at least for me: short biographies of the 50 US-based students who belong the 12th contingent of Gates Cambridge Scholars .
As you might guess, the scholarships were established by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The endowment of $210 million pays for 90 students from any country outside the UK to undertake postgraduate studies at Cambridge University. For the duration of their courses, Gates scholars receive an annual stipend of £13 300 ($20 500) and have their tuition fees covered. They also receive a return airplane ticket.
Competition for the generous scholarships is fierce. The selection process includes an interview, which may be conducted via Skype. For the 50 places open to US-based applicants, the acceptance rate is 1 in 20. For the 40 places open to the rest of the world, it’s 1 in 80.
Rutgers University graduates Devinn Lambert and Kelvin Mei belong to this year’s incoming class of Gates Cambridge Scholars. Lambert wants to conduct research related to renewable energy. Mei wants to build hardware for the next particle collider. CREDIT: Nick Romanenko
The article about the scholars in Cambridge in America listed their names, hometowns, undergraduate institutions and the courses they intend to take at Cambridge. It also included one or two sentences written by each scholar that stated what he or she hoped to achieve.
The statements make interesting reading. They’re also inspirational. Lindsey Murray of Warsaw, Missouri, graduated from Michigan State University. Like her fellow Gates scholars, she’ll arrive in Cambridge in October, when she’ll start a master’s degree in criminology. Here’s how she describes her goal:
I would like to concentrate on NATO’s training of Afghan police and security forces, the rise of their forensic capabilities, and sustaining them once NATO support departs.
Elijah Fook Keat Mak of Singapore, who graduated from the University of Buffalo, will be doing a PhD in psychiatry. His statement reads:
While administering neuropsychological assessments for dementia patients, I became fascinated by the global challenge to halt the disease. I decided that fighting against neurodegenerative disorders would be my life endeavor.
There are physicists among this year’s Gates scholars. Kelvin Mei of Flemington, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University. He wants to build hardware for the next particle physics collider. Jason Tabachnik of Beachwood, Ohio, graduated from Case Western Reserve. He wants to become a condensed-matter physicist who focuses on the development of new materials.
Out of curiosity, I typed “astronomy” into the search box that appears on the alumni page of the Gates Cambridge Scholars website. Eleven names appeared, including one that I recognized, Erin Kara. A friend of mine heard her give a talk about her thesis research at this past April’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s high-energy astrophysics division. He was impressed.
Taken together, the statements give a favorable impression of the top students who graduate from US universities. The ambitions they set themselves are high and altruistic. To use IBM’s current slogan, they want to build a better planet.