201 9 CHURCHILL NEWS THE WINTER ISSUE Newsletter of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States

CHURCHILL SCHOLARS CHURCHILL’S NEW AMBASSADORS 2019 –20 Esteban Abeyta hen the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom sits at his desk in the Michael Aling Daniel Assumpcao impressive new embassy building near Vauxhall station, a portrait of Sir Winston Meenakshi Chakraborty W Churchill looks down upon him. Churchill would be smiling if he knew that this Ryan Chen year’s sixteen students under the Scholarship that bears his name were invited into the Anthony Coniglio Ambassador’s office recently to discuss their work. Edridge D’Souza Alexander Hwang The Ambassador, Robert Wood “Woody ” Johnson IV, met with the Churchill Cindy Liu Scholars, along with Trustees and friends of the Foundation this November. As the group Clara Ma walked through the lobby, they passed a marble wall of honor listing past American Ambas- Cameron Owen Jesse Palmer sadors, including former Foundation President, Ambassador Lewis Douglas. While the Anita Qualls Scholarship is funded through private donations, it came about as a reflection of the very Brian Seymour close ties between the US and UK and continues to promote scientific cooperation between Jamie Tucker-Foltz the countries. Eric Wang Ambassador Johnson asked each student to tell him where they are from and what they study. It was a happy coincidence that just two weeks earlier, the students had all gone through public engagement training (paid for through our annual fund), where they were ESTD 1963 CHURCHILL taught how to answer this question in 30 seconds! The result was a fascinating discussion on SCHOLARSHIP A life-changing year a wide range of scientific topics, which you can read about in the pages of this newsletter. of independent research at Cambridge University Letter from the Executive Director

f you look at Americans who have come to Cambridge, I would say on average “ they’ve done far better than most of their colleagues, after they’ve gone back.” That, I in a nutshell, is the transformative effect of the Churchill Scholarship according to Nobel Laureate and President of the Royal Society Sir Venki Ramakrishnan. Sir Venki, who spent last academic year mentoring Churchill Scholar Aswini Krishnan, said these inspiring words while filming for two promotional videos the Foundation produced. One film is aimed at prospective student applicants to the Scholarship, and the other is for people outside of academia who may be interested in what we do. You can see the Churchill Scholarship films on our website (www.churchillscholarship.org) and on YouTube. We were very lucky that when looking for a production company, we dis - covered Sally Angel, herself a Churchill College graduate and an award-winning producer. During production, Sally won a BAFTA for her short film Missed Call . She also has an Emmy for Night Will Fall . Many thanks to Sally, her team, and all the current and former Churchill Scholars, Trustees, and professors, who con - tributed to these videos. I was particularly amazed that recent Scholar Evan O’Dorney took time out of his PhD studies to write and produce the musical score. One goal with the videos is to help grow the Scholarship, both by attracting more applicants and more funding to the program. Currently we select a cohort of 16 Churchill Scholars. For most of our history, we have sent just 10 or 11 Schol - ars to Cambridge each year. Thanks to donations, starting in 2006, we have been steadily increasing the number of Scholars, with the goal of reaching 20, which the College has agreed to take. At the same time, we are also working to improve the experience for the Scholars we already have. Thanks to fundraising success in recent years, we were Mike Morse able to raise the level of the Churchill Scholarship stipend to 5% over the amount set by the UK Research Councils for PhD students. The Trustees feel that a prestigious Scholarship such as the Churchill should have a stipend above the UK state standard, especially for students from abroad, who may have extra expenses. In addition to the stipend increase, we now provide our students with public engagement training, which culminates in a Churchill Scholars “busking station” at the Cambridge Science Festival. Also, we provide a science policy seminar and bring Scholars on a tour of Parliament, including an information session with the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. These workshops and seminars reflect our philosophy of selecting candidates with great potential as research scientists, engineers, and mathematicians first, and then providing them with the tools to become future leaders. Speaking of great leaders, it has been a devastating year since our last newsletter. Previous: The Churchill In the In Memoriam section, you will see that we have lost two esteemed Trustees, Bruno Scholars and Foundation Schroder and former Master Sir John Boyd. Tragically, we have also lost Michael Zhao representatives meet the American Ambassador (2017 –18), a recent Churchill Scholar who was the heart and soul of his cohort. to the United Kingdom It is with some solace that in the face of these losses, Sir Winston Churchill’s vision (11th from the left). of scientific cooperation lives on through the work of this Foundation. IN MEMORIAM

MICHAEL ZHAO (1995 –2018) It is with immense sadness that the Foundation reports the passing of a Churchill Scholar from the 2017 –18 cohort. A graduate of the , Michael Zhao studied Pure Mathematics at Cambridge. He was in his first term as a PhD student at Columbia University when he died suddenly from a heart attack. His fellow Scholars remember him for his sense of humor and love of math. They describe him as genuine, easy to talk to, and extremely generous with his time. He was one of the center figures of the cohort and encouraged bonding between members of his Michael Zhao in front class, as well as within Churchill College and with students from various courses. Friends of the Matterhorn in Switzerland in 2018. could always tell when he was nearby from his boisterous laugh, which always came as a Photo by Lucy Chai welcome interruption of their studying. He was a great resource to non-mathematicians, often helping them understand mathematical concepts. He “very patiently” explained sheaf cohomology to Seth Musser, the only other mathematician in the cohort. And he took great joy in explaining imaginary numbers to the Executive Director’s eighth-grade daughter. Professor Colm Caulfield, director of Part III Mathematics at Cambridge wrote to us to say that Michael was warm, enthusiastic, kind, and funny, as well as an outstanding mathematician.

Bruno Schroder at the BRUNO SCHRODER (1933 –2019) Scholars and Trustees The Foundation is sad to report the passing of long-serving Trustee, Bruno Schroder. luncheon, 2014. Photo by Peter Patrikis Mr. Schroder joined the Board of Trustees in 1992, and over almost three decades of service to the Foundation he gave generously (both to the Foundation and to Churchill College), sponsored a number of individual Churchill Scholars, and took great joy in meeting new Scholars at events in London and Cambridge. He spent his career at the family business, Schroders plc, an international fund manager and investment bank. A licensed pilot, Mr. Schroder often flew from London to his home on the isle of Islay, Scotland, where he supported the local community through festivals, funding a lifeboat, and reopening Bruichladdich, a shuttered whisky distillery. He held degrees from Oxford and Harvard and enjoyed the opera and ballet. In the 1970s, he made his family’s antique silver collection available, and it has been exhibited in museums around the world. He was committed to fostering the friendship between the United States and United Kingdom and took great pride in introducing Churchill Scholars to the British way of life. Sir John Boyd in 1996. Churchill Archives Centre, College Archives, CCPH/3/1/6. SIR JOHN BOYD (1936 –2019) Copyright Julia Hedgecoe Shortly before going to press, we learned the sad news of the passing of Sir John Boyd KCMG, who was Master of Churchill College in the years 1996 –2006, and an Emeritus Trustee of the Foundation. In his distinguished career, Sir John was UK Ambassador to Japan, Chairman of the British Museum, and Chairman of Asia House. He formed many lasting friendships with Scholars and officers of the Foundation. Former Executive Director Peter Patrikis recalled the many Scholars luncheons he attended, his warm hospitality, and how he was open, charming, witty, and sincere. ESTEBAN ABEYTA MICHAEL ALING

Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) is a rare neurological Michael brings an engineering background to disease where the patient exhibits a variety of seem - applied physics and materials science, creating ingly unrelated phenotypic ailments (neurodegenera - advanced synthesis and measurement apparatus. tion, premature aging, insulin resistance, deficient Undergraduate design work on a record-setting immune response). Esteban will work under the high-pressure furnace has prepared him to enter guidance of Dr. Svetlana Khoronenkova, to investigate Dr. Suchitra Sebastian’s group in the Cavendish the role of the microenvironment and its potential Laboratory. There, he will work with diamond anvil in regulating the severity of the neurodegenerative cells (DAC) and uniaxial strain cells for measurements Esteban Abeyta response in diseases like A-T. in fundamental materials research under high- HOMETOWN While still a high school student, Esteban began pressure, cryogenic conditions. Española, New Mexico INSTITUTION an internship at Los Alamos National Lab where Since freshman year at UCSB, Michael made he worked with a team that developed an algorithm himself indispensable in the Wilson Lab’s manufac - BS, Biochemistry to study global historic outbreaks of infectious ture of a high-pressure optical furnace for the TO STUDY MPhil, Biochemistry diseases. This work led to an increased interest in growth of bulk, high-purity quantum materials. the prevention of communicable diseases, especially This floating zone furnace suppresses molten volatil - in developing countries, an interest which he later ity by growing samples at up to 1,000 times Earth’s pursued at the University of New Mexico’s College atmospheric pressure, tripling the pressure capabili - of Pharmacy. Under the guidance of a post-doc ties of any predecessor. For his continuing pressure fellow, he formulated a dry powder live vaccine that vessel, machine and optical design, he was credited requires no refrigeration. Esteban has also worked as second author on the resulting paper in Review as a research assistant investigating the role of of Scientific Instruments . In a separate project on quan - proton-ion transporter genes in the proliferation of tum effects in correlated electron systems, Michael C. albicans , a particularly virulent hospital-acquired adapted crystal growth techniques and performed infection. In the summer of 2018, he was selected electronic characterization of single crystals of as a Broad Summer Research Intern. He has also Sr 3(Ir 1-x Rux)O 7, leading to co-authorships in Physical Michael Aling received a travel award to present his work at the Review B and Physical Review Letters . HOMETOWN Ringberg Seminar in Bavaria, Germany. In his senior year, Michael became mechanical Goleta, California Esteban is a Goldwater Scholar and Regents engineering technical lead on a project designing, INSTITUTION University of California, Scholar as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa fabricating and testing a powered assistive walking Santa Barbara among other recognitions. His GPA is 4.14, includ - device for a girl with cerebral palsy, helping to BS, Mechanical Engineering ing 17 A+ grades. He has served as a selection manage an interdisciplinary team of eleven under TO STUDY MPhil, Physics committee member for the Regents Scholarship and a fixed budget. Michael is a Goldwater Scholar with has helped organize the annual University of New a GPA of 3.98 and 36 A+ grades. Over breaks, he Mexico’s Health Professions Symposium in addition loves to hike, camp, backpack and photograph natu - to many other community organizing events ral landscapes in California, Oregon, Washington, centered around youth and academic success. and Utah.

U CHURCHILL SCHOLARS ON THE MOVE

Thomas Connelly, Jr. (1974 –75) is the Elizabeth Simmons (1985 –86) was named Executive Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs at the University of of the American Chemical Society California, San Diego

Deborah Grubbe (1977 –78) was elected President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for 2021 Kendra Sharp (1993 –94) was named Senior Advisor Philip Nelson (1980 –81) returned to Cambridge to the Provost for Interna - to deliver a lecture on The Intrinsic Allure of Extrinsic tional Affairs at Oregon Curvature in the Rouse Ball Lecture Series State University 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 7 4 0 8 6 5 8 6 5 3 1 9 7 4 2 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 7 8 8 9 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 DANIEL ASSUMPCAO MEENAKSHI CHAKRABORTY

The computational performance of the micro - Meena cites a trip to Calcutta’s poor neighborhoods processor continues to improve, but at the cost of and to a children’s HI V ward in South Africa as unsustainable levels of energy consumption and motivation for her to consider how to do good in the heat power emission. Daniel wants to investigate world. She hopes to combine her understanding of practical and alternative devices that will continue biology and wet-lab techniques with computational to power computational technology. Professor methods to determine the genetic basis of human Jeremy Baumberg, a leader in the field of nanopho - diseases. At Cambridge, in the genetics lab of Pro - tonics and plasmonics, will host Daniel as he investi - fessor Alfonso Martinez Arias, Meena will continue Daniel Assumpcao gates the possibility of integrating nanophotonic her undergraduate investigation into the genetic HOMETOWN regulation of stem cell behavior. Issaquah, Washington techniques with Resistive RAM (RRAM) devices in INSTITUTION order to provide a way to observe the morphological While only a high school student, Meena wrote California Institute of Technology changes that occur at the nanoscale level and thus a successful epidemiological paper under the men - BS, Electrical Engineering torship of Dr. Bruce Walker, a well-known AIDS TO STUDY develop an understanding of the underlying kinetics MPhil, Physics involved. researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. She Daniel discovered the power of nanotech- presented her paper to the broader MGH commu - empowered devices as well as their fabrication chal - nity, and the videotape of her presentation was used lenges during his first quarter at Caltech. Sparked to familiarize new Walker Lab members with by this introduction, he joined a medical nanodevices HIV/AIDS research. Also in high school, Meena lab where he eventually took on his own project wrote another paper about the discovery of circular which involved the design and fabrication of RNAs and their potential impact on therapeutics, improved micro-scale temperature sensors. Upon resulting in the first Wikipedia page on the topic completing this, Daniel began working in the field that others have built upon as the field has evolved. of nanophotonics, studying the quantum limits Since 2016, she has worked in the lab of Nobel in plas monic waveguides. Daniel’s work has been Laureate, Professor Philip Sharp. She has studied published and he gave a presentation of his findings how microRNAs and enhancers coordinate transitions Meenakshi Chakraborty at the Materials Research Society Meeting in the between different gene expression programs in stem HOMETOWN fall of 2018. cells. Failure to transition can lead to abnormalities Lexington, Massachusetts like cancer. Her computational and experimental INSTITUTION Daniel has a 4.0 GPA with 10 A+ grades. He Massachusetts Institute of was Secretary for the Caltech branch of Tau Beta Pi work, where she is first-author, is expected to be Technology and has been named a Saul and Joan Cogen Memo - published later in 2019. BS, Computer Science and Mo - lecular Biology rial SURF Fellow (for his research work at Harvard Meena has a nearly perfect transcript. She is TO STUDY in the summer of 2018) and a J. Weldon Green a Goldwater Scholar, Amgen Scholar, and MIT MPhil, Genetics SURF Fellow (for his work at Caltech in the summer Johnson & Johnson Scholar. MIT awarded her with of 2016). Daniel has won an NSF Graduate the Susan Hockfield Prize for Life Sciences and Research Fellowship. He is an avid rower . the Wei Research award. She has been inducted into the HKN Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society and the Sigma Xi Honor Society. Meena was the speaker outreach chair for MIT’s Effective Altruism (EA) Club. She oversaw the first Undergraduate Summer Research Poster Session Christopher Hayward (2005 –06) was as a member of MIT’s Biology Undergraduate named Associate Research Scientist at Student Association. the Center for Computational Astrophysics, part of the Flatiron Institute in Manhattan

Emily Russell (2007 –08) was moved to the team at Google that does “featured snippets” on the Search page Tobias Mansuripur (2009 –10) works at Pendar Tech - Hannah Wayment-Steele (2015 –16) is nologies, developing instruments based on optical spec - competing this fall on the US team in the coastal troscopy for chemistry and pharmaceutical applications rowing world championship in Hong Kong Kent Griffith (2013 –14) founded CB2Tech Limited, a start-up company Lisa Jones (2016 –17) was selected that is commercializing niobium tungsten oxide battery technology to be promoted to Captain in the US Army Sam Rodriques (2013 –14) was named a STAT and is the first active duty service member Wunderkind as one of the “unheralded heroes of to be admitted to the National Security science and medicine” Agency’s Applied Mathematics Program 2 0 9 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 3 5 6 9 4 7 8 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 RYAN CHEN the field of mathematical general relativity. Anthony is a quadruple major, having tacked on Ryan plans to focus on courses in algebra, algebraic three majors (B.S. in Mathematics, Physics, and geometry, and number theory. Within number Astronomy/Astrophysics) in addition to a degree in theory, he is excited about studying the connection music (B.M. in Piano Performance). In the summer between modular forms, elliptic curves and L-func - of 2018, he worked on the Mathieu differential tions, ubiquitous objects in modern number theory. equation at . He and his group He is also enthusiastic about the opportunity to studied the convergence of solutions to the equation write a research paper that aligns with his interest and investigated a method by which the Mathieu in arithmetic geometry. differential equation can be generalized to be Ryan Chen After his freshman year, he was accepted into defined as a “fractal differential equation.” The HOMETOWN Cornell University’s math REU under Professor research is being prepared for publication, and An - Lawrenceville, Georgia Florian Frick, where he worked on topological thony has presented the findings as one of just two INSTITUTION methods in discrete geometry, resulting in a paper undergraduate invited speakers at the AMS Special AB, Mathematics and conference presentations. The next summer, he Session on Differential Equations on Fractals at the TO STUDY MASt, Pure Mathematics and was accepted into Professor Steven Miller’s summer 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings. In the summer Mathematical Statistics research group in Number Theory and Probability of 2017, at a research experience at Valparaiso Uni - as part of the REU in mathematics at Williams versity, Anthony worked on perturbed Hamiltonian College. He contributed significantly to four different systems of differential equations. This research re - research projects, involving random matrix theory, sulted in a paper which will appear in The American statistics of elliptic curve Fourier coefficients, and Mathematical Monthly in addition to a second paper the distribution of Gaussian primes. He attended which has also been submitted for publication. the Young Mathematicians Conference at Ohio Having played the piano since the age of nine, State, where all four of his projects were accepted Anthony has found that his interest in analytical and all were in the top 15 submissions. After his mathematics is befitted by his love of classical junior year, he was accepted into Professor Ken music, with its complex organization of harmony Ono and Professor John Duncan’s REU at Emory and rhythm. He studied classical piano under University, where he and his collaborators studied Grammy Award-winning pianist André Watts and Anthony Coniglio modular form coefficient congruences in relation feels that the pursuit of mathematical research HOMETOWN with moonshine, a topic with relevancy in problems requires creativity at its core in the same way that Delray Beach, Florida of string theory and black hole states. The resulting musical interpretation does. Anthony is the recipient INSTITUTION Indiana University paper has since been solicited for publication in a of multiple named music awards as well as numerous BS, Mathematics, Physics, journal edited by one of the world’s leading mathe - departmental distinctions in mathematics and Astronomy/Astrophysics BM, Piano Performance matical physicists. For his senior thesis, he is studying astronomy. He has a near-perfect GPA of 3.97 while TO STUDY integral points on certain algebraic surfaces via averaging more than 20 credit hours per semester MASt, Applied Mathematics and moduli spaces of hyperelliptic curves. (the typical student takes 12 –18 hours). He has Theoretical Physics Ryan has a GPA of 3.99 with 24 A or A+ taught piano to many young students, including grades. He has completed all the course offerings in those with physical and/or neurological disabilities. his area of interest and has designed several individ - ualized courses. He is a Goldwater Scholar, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and winner of Princeton’s EDRIDGE D’SOUZA Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence and the Man - fred Pyka Prize in Physics. Ryan appreciates the re - By combining biochemistry and statistical inference, search mentoring he has received and hopes to foster Edridge hopes to discover how epigenetic effects an interest in STEM with younger students. Through and hidden patterns in RNA transcription/process - high school and college, he has helped coordinate ing can affect the expression of an organism’s math/science competitions and academic bowls. genome. At Cambridge, he will work on the Sox N Ryan plays the piano and self-trains in the sprints. gene with Dr. Steve Russell, who first identified the Edridge D’Souza gene’s role in the development of the central nerv - HOMETOWN Shrewsbury, Massachusetts ous system (CNS) of the common fruit fly. Edridge INSTITUTION ANTHONY CONIGLIO will try to differentiate the regulatory and functional University of Massachusetts/Amherst differences of Sox N from another partially redun - BS, Biochemistry, Molecular Anthony will pursue his interest in partial differen - dant gene within the Sox family, Diachete . Biology/Mathematics tial equations (PDEs) and analysis. He looks forward Edridge’s first research project combined tradi - TO STUDY MPhil, Genetics to taking classes like Analysis of PDEs and Elliptical tional lab-based techniques with computer pro - PDEs, with the hope of applying this knowledge to gramming, mathematical modeling, and statistical data analysis. His findings helped to develop a light, which is ultrafast and dissipates no heat. After mathematical model of cell growth kinetics in yeast, winning a competitive research grant, he traveled which was later published with Edridge as co-author. to Kyoto, Japan, where he demonstrated a practical During his second year, he used his programming way to increase information storage times in light- skills to find and visualize statistical differences in emitting 2D TMDs. After this, he received an NSF gene expression between stem cells and their daugh - REU to UC Berkeley’s Integrated Photonics Lab, ter cells. This work has been used as part of an where he investigated the use of nanoLEDs in 2D RO1 NIH grant submission. Early in his junior year, TMDs in developing nano-antenna paradigms and he presented the initial finding of his project on later, their shape optimization. “dosage compensation” at the Northeast Chromo - Alex is a Goldwater Scholar and the recipient Alexander Hwang some Pairing Meeting in Maine. Edridge had dis - of the School of Engineering’s Out - HOMETOWN covered a DNA sequence signature on the human X standing Research Award, the Physics Department’s Palo Alto, California chromosome that also mirrored a similar motif on Top Junior Award as well as other internal academic INSTITUTION Rice University the X chromosome of male Drosophila, which may and research awards. His major extracurricular BS, Physics explain a conserved mechanism that regulates sex- interest is the STEM outreach work he has led BA, Electrical Engineering linked traits and diseases in humans. Edridge also focused on addressing educational inequalities. Alex TO STUDY MPhil, Physics worked during the summers at the University of loves the viola and looks forward to performing Massachusetts Medical School, where he worked with Cambridge’s “Orchestra on the Hill.” under Nobel Laureate Craig Mello on questions of piRNA-target mRNA base-pairing as well as “RNA degradome” sequences. CINDY LIU Edridge has a perfect GPA of 4.0 with no grade Russo Churchill Scholar lower than an A. He is a Goldwater Scholar, Na - tional Merit Scholar, and Phi Beta Kappa. He was Cindy is working toward an MD/PhD. At Cam - also awarded an AT&T National Scholarship as well bridge, she will work with Professor Pietro Lio ′ on as other internal academic and research awards. He the PROPAG-AGEING initiative, focusing on is certified as a Rape Crisis Counselor and worked computational methods to uncover common molec - the crisis hotline. Edridge started the UMass Genetics ular and cellular markers in both the progression of Cindy Liu Club, which aims to increase “genetic literacy.” Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the aging process. Her HOMETOWN research has the potential to develop targeted PD San Jose, California treatment methods as well as identifying PD patients INSTITUTION ALEXANDER HWANG at an earlier stage of disease progression. BS, Biomedical Computation As an undergraduate, she worked on a new TO STUDY Alex will work on the nanoscale properties of light- technique for 3D RNA-sequencing of biological MPhil, Advanced Computer Science matter interactions in order to improve current limi - tissues, for which she is listed as a co-author in tations in silicon-based electronics. Extraordinarily Science . In addition, she was awarded a competitive thin, two-dimensional nanomaterials (2D TMD) Bio-X Undergraduate Research grant where she comprised of transition metal and chalcogen atoms helped her lab identify 12 select surface markers have great potential as future components of (out of nearly 300 screened) as the best candidate nanoscale optoelectronic systems. Professor Jeremy markers for cancer stem cells (CSCs) involved in the Baumberg’s NanoPhotonics group will host Alex’s formation of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM). She project, which will attempt to verify hybrid light- further differentiated these 12 candidates into the matter states at the nanoscale by incorporating 2D top few candidates for CSCs using Extreme Limiting TMDs into nanocavities. Dilution Analysis and in-vitro validation studies. As a high school senior, Alex became interested Cindy led the Stanford Health Innovations in in light’s ability to treat illness. He joined an inves - Future Technologies (SHIFT) Health++hackathon, tigative lab at Stanford University where he studied where 300 clinicians, engineers, product designers, the use of light to treat the build-up of bilirubin in business school students and hackers were chal - infants. He continued his study of light at Stanford lenged to reimagine health care. She also served as the following summer, where he used machine Editor-in-Chief for Intersect: The Stanford Journal of learning to investigate light-emitting smartwatches. Science, Technology, and Society , and worked as a tutor He then became interested in light-matter interac - with the East Palo Alto Stanford Academy (EPASA), tions at the nanoscale. Alexander has worked on im - tutoring seventh and eighth grade students from proving the design and fabrication of nanophotonic disadvantaged communities. She is also a talented biosensors and has also pushed to address electrical photographer, having won several top awards in in - inefficiency by exploring ways to send signals with ternational photography competitions, such as the International Photography Awards (IPA), and has Environmental Coalition, and as a science instructor had her photos published on the prestigious fine for the largest class of the Evolutions Afterschool art website 1x.com. Program for local Connecticut high school students at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. She is an avid writer, dancer, and chess player. CLARA MA Kanders Churchill Scholar CAMERON OWEN As the Kanders Churchill Scholar in Science Policy, Gerschel Churchill Scholar Clara will pursue a Master’s in Public Policy at Clara Ma Cambridge, where she will refine her interest in en - Cameron will investigate one approach to the prob - HOMETOWN ergy and environmental research and policy analysis . lem of converting methane into a functional biofuel Lenexa, Kansas Her career goal is to work in government adminis - by focusing on surface absorption. Working under INSTITUTION tration at the United States Department of Energy’s the direction of Professor Stephen Jenkins, he will BS, Geology & Geophysics Office of International Affairs, managing Sino-U.S. develop a theoretical investigation of doped-metallic BA, Political Science partnerships in global climate change mitigation, surfaces for the purpose of activating the very inert TO STUDY MPhil, Public Policy adaptation, and clean energy research initiatives. C-H bonds in methane. He is excited about the Clara studied Geology & Geophysics and future potential of his work to mitigate the role of Political Science at Yale in addition to completing a methane in the greenhouse gas effect and to create certificate in Energy Studies. Her undergraduate re - liquid fuel sources. search employs global climate modeling in the study As a freshman, Cameron began a fruitful resi - of air quality, climate change, and aerosol-climate dency with Professor Peter Armentrout’s research interactions. At the Lamont-Doherty Earth Obser - lab where he has investigated the oxidation chemistry vatory, she worked with scientists from Tsinghua of holmium, a rare earth metal, as well as the use of University as part of the Columbia Global Policy gold in activating methane for catalysis. Both these Initiative to predict surface ozone pollution levels projects were done under request by the US Air over the next several decades under climate change Force Research Laboratory. He has been invited to and future emissions scenarios in China. She presented participate in two international REU’s with Profes - her work at the American Geophysical Union Fall sor Armentrout where Cameron gained experience Cameron Owen HOMETOWN Meeting in 2017 and was the second author on a working with IR spectroscopy at one of the world’s Boise, Idaho paper submitted in 2019 to Environmental Research Let - best free electron laser facilities (FELIX) at Rad - INSTITUTION ters. Most recently, at the DOE’s Argonne National University of Utah boud University, Netherlands. There, he was able to Hons BS, Chemistry Laboratory, she worked to improve the representa - acquire IR spectra using different instrumentation BS, Physics tion of aerosols in the newly released DOE Energy which he then analyzed and interpreted for the TO STUDY MPhil, Chemistry Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM)—she is the purposes of elucidating metal activated methane lead au thor on the resulting conference abstract. complexes and characterizing metal-amino complexes. After winning a nationwide essay contest in Cameron has multiple manuscripts in progress 2009 to name NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory as first author as well as several published works rover, “Curiosity,” Clara worked with NASA and including two first-author publications in the Journal with the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in of Physical Chemistry and the European Journal of Mass her own community to promote youth engagement Spectrometry. He has been invited by the Gulf Coast in science and space exploration. In 2014, she gave Undergraduate Symposium at Rice University, a TEDxYouth talk on both the intrinsic and material twice, where he was awarded with the Best Presen - value of space exploration. Her personal reflections, tation in Spectroscopy award during his first visit. essays, and letters have been featured in publications He has submitted another lead author publication including Mashable, Highlights Magazine for on the bond dissociation energy of gold dimer Children, and in the time capsule marking the 50th cations to the Journal of Physical Chemistry. anniversary of the City of Cape Canaveral, Florida, Cameron is a Goldwater Scholar as well as the site of NASA’s primary launch center for human the recipient of numerous academic scholarships. and robotic spaceflight. Ma’s senior essay won the He is a member of Sigma Xi, Phi Kappa Phi, James Gordon Bennett Prize for the best submission Golden Key and Phi Eta Sigma Honor Societies. in international relations. He enjoys outdoor sports such as rock climbing, Clara is a 2015 United States Presidential mountain biking, and skiing. Scholar as well as a recipient of the Coca-Cola Scholarship. At Yale, she served as president of Yale Women in STEM, treasurer of the Yale Student JESSE PALMER bridge, Anita will work with Dr. Francesco Colucci Gabelli Churchill Scholar in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She will conduct research on the role of uterine From life-enhancing medical devices to sustainable lymphoid cells (g1 ILCs) and their response to energy solutions, Jesse is motivated by a desire to mouse cytomegalovirus (MCMV) during gestation. improve quality of life through practical devices. This investigation may be used in the prevention His current interest is the development of alterna - of congenital transmission in human infants. Anita tive energy sources for internal-combustion engines. will train in obstetrics after her Cambridge year These alternative sources require nano-structured and looks forward to a career in academic medicine. metal catalysts which add bulk and cost to the A Regenerative Bioscience Fellow at the Univer - Jesse Palmer completed device. In Dr. Laura Torrente’s Process sity of Georgia’s Skeletal Muscle Dysfunction Lab, HOMETOWN Integration Group, Jesse will focus on the use of she studied the role of mitochondrial maintenance Plano, Texas INSTITUTION renewable biological catalysts, using cellulose on skeletal muscle and repair. She also co-led an United States Military Academy nanofibers to create lighter and more scalable investigation into improved rehabilitation techniques BS, Chemical Engineering, Eurasian Regional Studies metal-organic catalysts. in patients with volumetric muscle loss (VML), TO STUDY Jesse began his work in the Multi-Functional focusing on the role of cytokine-mediated inflamma - MPhil, Advanced Chemical Materials Laboratory as a freshman, where he tory response on mitochondria. During a summe r Engineering worked on biological constituents to build aerogels internship at Harvard Medical School, she worked for catalysts in fuel cells and batteries. His later on pediatric clinical cases of rare genetic diseases investigations centered on the synthesis of noble- like hypermagnesemia. Anita’s work led to three metal aerogel frameworks. Working with a fellow separate contributions for clinical papers, with one undergraduate, he was able to reduce the formation as a first-author, where she discussed genotype- time of these aerogels from days to minutes while phenotype correlations in rare cases of congenital maintaining high electrochemical performance. myopathy. In addition, she was selected for a summer Building upon his work, he tackled the challenge of undergraduate research program at NYU School integrating aerogel catalysts in existing energy storage of Medicine, where she used shRNA technology systems by producing biological templates that could to decrease expression on specific leukemia cell lines be used for noble-metal deposition. He proposed the with NSD2 mutations in order to shed light on use of cellulose nanofibers for their high surface the pathways that drive drug resistance in acute Anita Qualls area potential for metal deposition. He also proposed lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). HOMETOWN Johns Creek, Georgia ways to increase the mechanical durability of Anita is the co-founder and president of Health INSTITUTION biological templates. In the summer of 2018, he 4 Kids, an initiative that encourages children to worked with the Harvard Disease Biophysics Group pursue a healthy lifestyle. She has also developed a BS, Biology TO STUDY to produce a template for fuel cell catalysis using stroke awareness program which was distributed MPhil, Obstetrics and a Kevlar-cellulose composite hydrogel. He has pub - to over 200 senior citizens in the Atlanta community . Gynaecology lished four journal papers with a fifth in review. She is a Leonard Leadership Scholar and Honors Jesse is a Goldwater Scholar and the recipient Policy Scholar, among other awards and honors. of a Stamps Scholarship. He has also been awarded She has a perfect 4.0 GPA. a scholarship from the Society of American Military Engineers as well as several institutional awards from West Point including the Dean’s Pentathlete BRIAN SEYMOUR Award and the Distinguished Cadet award. He is a Dyer Churchill Scholar member of the Tau Beta Pi and Phi Sigma Iota Honor Societies. Jesse has also developed interna - Brian will take courses in General Relativity and tional collaborations with scientists in South Korea Cosmology among others. He hopes to add to his and Australia to further promote research opportu - understanding of gravitational physics, astrophysics, nities for underclassmen. and quantum gravity in order to apply it to his Brian Seymour studies of strong gravity. He further wants to under - HOMETOWN Ruckersville, Virginia stand the physics of both large-scale structure and INSTITUTION ANITA QUALLS the early universe in cosmology. University of Virginia He began his first research project in high BS, Physics and Mathematics TO STUDY Human cytomegalovirus virus (HCMV) affects up school, working on a soft condensed matter project, MASt, Applied Mathematics and to 1.2% of all pregnancies in the developed world. the rheology of foams. As a rising junior in college, Theoretical Physics The mechanism of transmission is currently un - he worked at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational known, and the congenital infection can result in Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Livingston, Louisiana, neurodevelopmental sequelae in the fetus. At Cam - a joint project of Caltech and MIT. This collabora - tive research program detects gravitational waves Sigma Xi. He is the recipient of consecutive with light interferometry. However, these waves are Amherst’s Walker Prize in Problem Solving, Math 1,000 times smaller than a proton and are buried and Statistics, Amherst’s Schupf Scholarship for “in an ocean of ubiquitous environmental noise.” incoming exceptional Amherst students, and the Working from first principles, Brian was able to model Charles Cole Scholarship. During his senior year he angular noise and test it on the LIGO instrument won the Addison Brown Scholarship, the Computer offline, thereby suggesting that this source of the Science Prize, and the Woods-Travis Prize. He is noise was insignificant. During his junior year, he the president of the Strategic Board Games Club began working on tests of modified theories of and Juggling Club, where he can juggle up to 9 balls gravity, exploring the gravitational wave signal of standing or 5 clubs on a unicycle. He also plays Jamie Tucker-Foltz a pulsar in orbit about a black hole. The resulting volleyball competitively. HOMETOWN manuscript was published in Physical Review D . Boulder, Colorado He is a Goldwater nominee as well as the INSTITUTION ERIC WANG winner of an Astronaut Scholarship, and the recipi - BA, Computer Science and ent of multiple research grant awards. He was the Epstein Churchill Scholar Mathematics outreach chair for the Society of Physics Students TO STUDY MPhil, Advanced Computer and has a science blog to help high school and Eric will work with Dr. Michele Vendruscolo, whose Science college students figure out a path to study physics. lab focuses on computational approaches to under - He has created an open source android app that standing molecular structures implicated in typesets equations in L aTeX to help students study Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Eric will focus physics and mathematics. Brian is an Eagle Scout on the amyloid beta (A β) peptide and its possible and hopes to one day write a popular science book. role in the formation of lipid membrane defects. This research can pave the way for the design of small molecule drugs that could inhibit the aggrega - JAMIE TUCKER-FOLTZ tion of A β to potentially halt disease. Eric began learning molecular dynamics tech - Jamie’s first interest was pure math. However, niques using instructions he found on the internet, it became clearer with time that the most exciting in order to run and analyze simulations of lipid raft questions for him involved computer science. At models. For this work, he was presented with the Eric Wang Cambridge, he will pursue an MPhil in Advanced Jeffrey Madura Outstanding Research Award at the HOMETOWN Computer Science. He is excited about studying American Chemical Society meeting. Shortly after, Potomac, Maryland INSTITUTION the mathematical theories behind computer science he began his study of the molecular structure of University of Maryland/ topics such as metaprogramming and type theory. the skin. Using MD and free energy simulations, he College Park He is interested in pursuing a project involving devised a novel model of ethanol permeation. In BS, Bioengineering TO STUDY logical systems, such as verifying cryptographic pro - the summer of 2017, he began work at the National MPhil, Chemistry tocol security . Institutes of Health (NIH) where he expanded the After his sophomore year, he and Professor Josh application of MD to study the effect of an influenza Grochow (UC Boulder) worked on a theoretical peptide on membranes. He created a novel method computational problem and published the results of to evaluate pore stability, and he also used confocal the research with Jamie as coauthor. He presented microscopy to image peptide-induced pore leakage. the results (on a connection between “unique This work has now evolved into additional projects games” and algebraic topology) at the 34th Interna - on membrane permeability, leveraging his previous tional Symposium on Computational Geometry in work with ethanol and his experience with theoretical Budapest in the summer of 2018. His senior honors modeling. He has also written a code that is being research project involved adiabatic quantum com - used to calcul ate lipid interdigitation. Eric is the first puting and graph theory. Another one of Jamie’s or co-first author of 7 papers in journals such as main intellectual interests is the connection between Chemical Reviews and The Journal of Physical Chemistry computer science and game theory. He was invited B, and he has another first author paper in review to attend the 29th International Conference on in The Journal of the American Chemical Society . He also Game Theory at Stony Brook, where he presented serves as a reviewer fo r The Journal of Physical Chemistry. and discussed his game-theoretic solution to the Eric has twice been awarded the Howard gerrymandering problem in a two-party setting. Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellowship. He is Jamie has also held a summer internship at Google a Goldwater Scholar and the recipient of a Presi - as a software engineer. dent’s Scholarship and the American Chemical Soci - Jamie has 18 A+ grades with no grade lower ety’s Jeffrey Madura Outstanding Research Award. than A and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and The Churchill Adviser Award

art of the success of the Churchill Scholarship is well known to the Scholars them - selves but invisible to others. That is the hard work and dedication of scholarship P advisers from our network of participating institutions. Scholarship advisers identify, recruit, and nominate potential Churchill Scholars, helping not just with their applications but often with their careers. On the occasion of former Executive Director Harold Epstein giving the Foundation a number of commemorative Churchill coins from the Franklin Mint, the Foundation has created the annual Churchill Adviser Award for a scholarship adviser who has done a great deal for the success of the program. The first award goes to Peter Bogucki, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs at the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. Peter has been the Churchill adviser, with one minor break, from 1997 to his retirement from that position in 2019. In that time, he has nomi - nated 15 successful Churchill Scholarship candidates. To put this in context, Dean Peter Bogucki there are only 11 universities that have placed at least 15 Churchill Scholars since the competition started in 1963. For the period where we have full data, Princeton is one of just two institutions nationally that uses both of its two nomination slots every year. Under Peter’s guidance, more than 40% of Princeton’s nominees have been successful, and this statistic is unrivalled. It is hard to imagine such a prolific nominating institution ever again winning at this rate over such a long period of time.

UNDER PETER’S GUIDANCE, MORE THAN 40% OF PRINCETON’S NOMINEES HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL, AND THIS STATISTIC IS UNRIVALLED.

The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States FALL CAMPAIGN is a not-for-profit organization Please join us in supporting the Churchill Scholarship, which relies on annual donations to keep the under section 501(c)(3) number of Scholars as high as possible and to help train the very best US STEM graduates to become and is classified as a public scientific leaders. Donations can be made by credit card if you click “Donate” on our website charity under sections (www.churchillscholarship.org) or by check to The Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States, 509(a)(1) and 179(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code. 600 Madison Avenue, Suite 1601, New York NY 10022. Please contact the Executive Director All contributions to the if you are interested in donating appreciated securities or remembering the Foundation in your will. Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent of the law.

SAVE THE DATES San Francisco event : Building on the success of our Thursday March 19, 2020, The St. Francis Yacht Club alumni panel discussions last year, Boston event : we are doing them again. Wednesday April 15, 2020, The Union Club of Boston CHURCHILL SCHOLARSHIP SCIENCE/MATH EMATICS/ENGINEERING 600 Madison Avenue Suite 1601 New York, NY 10022

LOOKING BACK 25 YEARS AGO

Top row (left-to-right): “My program Mira Bernstein, opened my Peter Bogdanoff, Dmitry Green, eyes to the Jonathan Murnick, problems that Kirsten Nelson Moore. I could help to solve as an Bottom row (left-to-right): engineer and Eric Stevens, put my under - Diane Thomson, Jason West, standing of Jessica Wolpaw Reyes, environmental Edmund Yeh. problems in global context. ” n g Jason West, i s e

Professor of Environ - D d e mental Sciences and t a r g

Engineering, Univer - e t n sity of North Carolina I e c a

at Chapel Hill p s e t i “What meant the most to me about my year in Cambridge was h W : y

the chance to become part of an incredibly rich international h p a r

community .” Diane Thomson, g o

CHURCHILL p y NEWS 2019 Professor of Environmental Science and Biology, t d n

A Claremont Colleges a n g i s e D