Spring 98.dat - Winston Churchill Foundation

CHURCHILL
CHURCHILL NEWS
NEWS
N EWSLETTER
OF THE
W INSTON C HURCHILL F OUNDATION
IN MEMORIAM
SIR WILLIAM HAWTHORNE, MA, ScD, CBE, FRS, FREng,
Master of Churchill College from 1968 to1983, passed
away in September at the age of 98.
William Rede
Hawthorne
was born on
May 22, 1913 at
Benton, New ‑
castle‑upon‑
Tyne, the son
of a con sulting
civil engineer.
In 1916 his
fam ily moved
to
Lon don,
where Wil liam
was edu cated
at the West ‑
m i n s t e r
School. He won
a merit scholar‑
photograph © Julia Hedgecoe
ship to Trinity
College, where he read Mathematics before changing
to Mechanical Sciences. He was particularly
interested in thermo dy nam ics, winning the Ricardo
Prize in that field, sharing the Rex Moir prize
awarded to the top students in the Mechanical
Sciences tripos, and graduating in 1934 with a double
first. In 1935 he went on a Commonwealth Fund
Fellowship to MIT, where he joined the Department
A UTUMN 2011
of Chemical Engineering under Professor H.C. Hottel
and studied combustion and, in particular, the effect
of turbulence on flame lengths, showing that the rate
at which oxygen is mixed with fuel controls the
length of the flame. After MIT he joined the Royal
Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough and played a
crucial role in the team that developed the gas
turbine jet engine in Britain during the Second World
War.
In 1945 he became Deputy Director of Engine
Research in the British Ministry of Supply before
returning to America a year later as an Associate
Professor of Engineering at MIT. There he undertook
important studies of flow through rows of
compressor blades and pipes, especially the
turbulent behavior of flow in bent pipes (known as
secondary flows), offering a theoretical explanation
for the spiraling motion of fluid as it rounds a bend,
and applying the theory to the design of turbine and
compressor blades. He was appointed MIT’s first
George Westinghouse Professor of Mechanical
Engineering at the age of thirty‑five.
In 1951 he returned to the University of Cambridge
to be elected a Fellow of Trinity and to take up the
newly created Hopkinson and ICI Chair in Applied
Thermodynamics. There he developed teaching and
research facilities in engineering thermodynamics
and continued his research on the theory of flow in
compressors and turbines. He was Head of the
Department of Engineering at Cambridge from 1968
to 1973.
in this issue...
I N M EMORIAM
1
T HE 2011 C OMPETITION
2
T HE 2011‑2012C HURCHILL S CHOLARS
4
T HE 2010‑2011 C HURCHILL S CHOLARS
C HURCHILL S CHOLAR N EWS
11
12
T HE F OUNDATION ’ S W EB S ITE
D ONATIONS
T HE B OARD OF T RUSTEES
15
17
20
Sir William was a Fellow of the Royal Society
and a Founder Fellow of the Fellowship of
Engi neering, which subsequently became the
Royal Academy of Engineering. He was
knighted in 1970 . He served on many com ‑
mittees and advisory bodies concerned with
energy matters and chaired the national
Advisory Council on Energy Conservation.
Sir Wi lliam enjoyed a lifetime’s hobby of
performing magic tricks and is remembered by
the kitchen staff at Churchill College as “the
man who made cheese rolls come out from
Copyright © 2011 by The Winston Churchill Foun‑
dation of the United States. All rights reserved.
PAGE 2
Autumn 2011
C HURC HILL N EWSLETTER
behind his ear.” He was married to the late Barbara
Runkle, who died in 1992; they had a son and two
daughters.
Will, as he was known to friends and colleagues, is
warmly and fondly remembered by many
generations of Churchill Scholars and by students
and colleagues across the globe.
Memorials services are to be held at Cambridge next
February and at MIT next spring.
THECOMPETITION
SCHOLARSHIP
FOR THE
2011‑2012 C H U R C H I L L
THE WINSTON CHURCHILL FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED
S TAT E S consistently receives applications from
students of the highest academic talent and
outstanding achievement, so much so that the
Churchill Scholar ship was recently deemed by one
scholarship advisor “the academically rigorous of all
the prestigious scholarships.”
Last year there were several changes in the pro ‑
cedures for applying to the Churchill Scholarship
Program. The online application had only minor
emendations, because it is essentially robust and well
suited for the task. This robustness was put into
stark focus this fall when the new inline application
to the University of Cambridge was discovered not to
function properly and thus required a two‑week
change of several deadlines and when the online
application for the Fulbright presented even graver
problems the same week in October. A few cosmetic
changes will be made to the Churchill application
after this year’s competition. The instructions for the
applicants and also the instructions for the Campus
Representatives to the Churchill Scholarship
Program were completely rewritten; each of these
documents undergoes annual revision.
For many years, the Foundation had used the
services of the Institute of International Education
(IIE), which among other scholarships also handles
the Fulbright Program, for the processing of
applications and for the arrangements of the
Screening Committee. It became increasing obvious
that while the IIE had played a vital role in the past,
that role had in fact been vitiated by technology.
Consequently, the Foundation now uses the firm that
built the online application for the maintenance and
revision of the application but now handles in house
every other aspect of the application process, from
distribution of the applications to conducting the
meeting of the Screening Committee in the
Foundation’s donated headquarters.
There are now effectively two different submissions
of the application for the Churchill Scholarship: (1)
the application emailed by the Campus Repre ‑
sentative and (2) the online application submitted by
the student. The first is the full package with the
application, the institutional letter of endorsement,
the four academic letters of recommendation, the
transcript(s), and any other additional materials (e.g.,
notification of placement in a laboratory), all
bundled into a single pdf file and emailed to the
Foundation. There was no difficulty with handling
the emails, which ranged from 1MB to 14MB. The
Foundation replied to each email immediately
confirming receipt of the application. The online
submission is for administrative purposes and allows
the production of spread sheets and mailing lists
with no need for data entry.
The manner in which any organization manages its
fellowship competition is perhaps the most
significant aspect of its public identity. Over the past
six years the Foundation has made radical changes in
the competition for the Churchill Scholarship
Program, ranging from the increasing use of
technology to save time and money (for the
universities and for the Foundation) to, most
important of all, making the process as transparent
as possible by responding promptly, courteously to
all inquiries, and by constantly revising the Web site,
instructions for applicants, directions for Campus
Representatives, and presentations to faculty and
administrators. No other organization responds to
questions about academic programs and its
application in this manner.
For the November 2011 deadline, the Foundation
received 94 applications from 60 colleges and
universities; in 2009 there were 81 applications from
55 institutions, and in 2008 99 applications from 62
institutions. Undergraduate institutions (including
CHU R C H I L L N E WS L E T T E R
Autumn 2011
the U.S. Naval Academy) accounted for only 9 (9.7%)
of the applications. There were 26 public institutions
(27.7%) represented.
Amherst College (2)
Bowdoin College
Brown University
California Institute of Technology (2)
Carnegie Mellon University (2)
Case Western Reserve University (2)
Colgate University
Colorado School of Mines
Columbia University (2)
Cornell University (2)
CUNY Macaulay Honors College
Duke University (2)
Emory University
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Georgia Institute of Technology (2
Harvard University (2)
Harvey Mudd College
Indiana University (2)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2)
Michigan State University (2)
Northwestern University (2)
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State University (2)
Pomona College (2)
Princeton University (2)
Reed College
Rice University
Rutgers University
Smith College
Stanford University
Stony Brook University
Swathmore College (2)
Tufts University
Tulane University
United State Naval Academy
University of California/Berkeley
University of California/San Diego (2)
University of California/Santa Barbara (2)
University of Chicago (2)
University of Colorado (2)
University of Florida
University ofIllinois (2)
University of Iowa
University of Kansas
University of Maryland (2)
University of Michigan (2)
University of Minnesota (2)
University of Nebraska
University of North Carolina (2)
University of Rochester
University of Souterh California
PA G E 3
University of Virginia (2)
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin (2)
Vanderbilt University (2)
Washington University (2)
Wesleyan University
Williams College (2)
Yale University
In this group there are several institutions that are
either relatively new to the Churchill Scholarship
Pro gram or that have been more or less inactive in
the past five years: Berkeley, Bowdoin, Case
Western, Colgate, CUNY, Emory, Florida, Fordham,
Nebraska, Penn State, Smith, Stony Brook, Tufts,
Tulane, USC, and Williams. The participation of this
colleges and universities can be directly attributed to
visits from the Foundation or to long telephone
conversations with the Campus Representatives.
Since there are now 103 colleges and universities
participating in the Churchill Scholarship Program,
the Foundation could, in theory, receive up to 206
applications, but many schools will nominate only
those students whom they believe to be exception ‑
ally competitive for the award.
There were applications from 30 women (31.2%) and
64 men (68.8 %); last year there were 31 women
(38.3%) and 51 men.(61.7%). There were two
applications from graduate students (students may
apply up to the age of 26). One applicant was
married.
There were 24 applications in the biological sciences,
20 in the physical sciences, 18 in engineering and
related fields, and fully 33 in mathematics,
perennially the field that receives the largest number
of applications and consequently the most difficult
field given the strength and depth of the applicants.
Here is the distribution of the fields of the applica‑
tions, arranged in cognate fields:
Biochemistry (3)
Biology (2)
Clinical Biochemistry (1)
Chemistry (10)
Clinical Neuroscience (3)
Developmental Biology (1)
Epidemiology (1)
Experimental Psychology (2)
Genetics (3)
Medical Genetics (1)
Oncology (1)
Physiology (1)
Psychiatry (2)
Public Health (1)
PAGE 4
Autumn 2011
Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (1)
Zoology (1)
Advanced Computer Science (3)
Engineering (8)
Micro and Nanotechnology Enterprise (4)
Materials Science & Metallurgy (3)
Astronomy (1)
Physics (7)
Environmental Science (2)
Applied Mathematics & Theoretical Physics (9)
Theoretical Mathematics (19)
Statistics (1)
Computational Biology (4)
The Foundation continues to draw an large
contingent of applicants in mathematics, both
theoretical and applied; indeed, it is an exception ‑
ally strong contingent and annually includes some of
the top undergraduate mathematicians in the
country. This concentration is due both to the
reputation of mathematics at Cambridge and also to
the Foundation’s enviable record of supporting
outstanding mathematicians.
This round appears to have been the first occasion
where the Foundation has received applications in
the field of Experimental Psychology and Psychiatry.
There is a new Masters of Advanced in Material
Sciences that has attracted students, and the MPhil in
Translational Medicine, with its hefty £1,000 “bench
fee,” is also new. There is also strong interest in the
relatively new Micro‑ and Nanotechnology
Enterprise Program, which combines engineering
with some course work in business.
The Screening Committee convened in New York on
Sunday and Monday, January 2nd and 3rd. The
Screening Committee included Dmitry Green (1994‑
1995), Karl Mueller (1985‑1986), Leslie Phinney
(1990‑1991), Jennifer Ruesink (1989‑1990), Hal
Sadofsky (1984‑1985), and Kathleen King Siwicki
(1977‑1978) The first evening the group enjoyed a
Lebanese dinner of countless appetizers and of good
cheer; afterwards, the group convened to go over
any ques tions and to review the rankings, which
were received one week beforehand, compiled in a
various spreadsheets (by institution, by field, etc.),
and then emailed back to the Committee for their
further review. After the meeting, Dmitry Green
treated the group to a visit to his office in the
magnificent Chrysler Building, an office at the level
of the balconies just below the gargoyles staring out
at New York. It was a cool and windy evening, and
the city from that floor looked like a movie set.
C HURC HILL N EWSLETTER
CHURCHILL SCHOLARS 2011‑2012
ADEETEE R. BHIDE is doing the Master of
Philosophy in Experimental Psychology in the
Division of Biological Sciences, working in the labo‑
ratory of Pro ‑
fessor Usha Gos ‑
wami on impaired
per ception
of
rhythm linked to
dyslexia and to
Specific Language
Impairment
symp toms. From
Princeton Junc ‑
tion, New Jersey,
Adeetee gradu ‑
ated summa cum
laude from Wash ‑
ing ton University
in St. Louis with a
major in Biology
(the highly com ‑
petitive Neuroscience Track) and with minors in Psy‑
chol ogy and in Anthropology. At grad uation she
received the Spector Prize awarded for the best
senior honors thesis in Biology and was inducted
into Phi Beta Kappa. A Goldwater Scholar, Adeetee
has a daunting record of research cutting across the
disci plines of neurology, neuroscience, biology,
psychology and medicine. Every year from the
summer before freshman year, she received
competitive scholarships to support her research
projects in neurology and otolaryngology. She has
studied the clinico‑pathological correlations of
patients with movement disorders after post‑mortem
brain material became available, and in another
project she used advanced neuroimaging methods to
examine the relations of functional connectivity
network metric to standard psychometric scores.
She has also done a psycho‑linguistic study across
different age groups on the effect of transposing one
letter in the development of skilled reading.
Through the examination of autopsy records she
opened up new research in the pathologic entities
that underlie dementia in people with Parkinson’s
Disease. Her teachers write that she is “destined to
be an outstanding scientist,” that “[her] research is
very exciting and has tremendous potential… and
could open up vast news regions of research in how
to diagnose children with reading disorders,” and
that
she
is
“an
outstanding
citizen.”
She has been very active in volunteer activities for
the benefit of children in the inner city, ranging from
coordinating activities of a literacy curriculum to
CHU R C H I L L N E WS L E T T E R
Autumn 2011
raising money for art lessons. She also has served on
the College Council and plays viola in the University
Orchestra at WashU. In her spare time Adeetee plays
guitar, sings, and performs Indian classical dance
and Bollywood Fusion. After Cambridge she will do
her doctorate i n Cognitive Psychology at the
University of Pittsburgh.
STEPHEN J. FLEMING is doing the Master of
Philosophy in the Physics, working on a project in
bio‑assisted self‑assembly to create nano‑structures
of physical inter ‑
est for medical
pur poses in the
laboratory of Dr.
Sumeet Mahajan;
he is the first
Churchill Scholar
to work in the
area of the Physics
of
Medi cine.
From Crescent
Springs,
Ken ‑
tucky, he gradua ‑
ted with a BS
summa cum laude
with Honors in
Biochemistry and
with a BS summa sum laude in Physics from Case
Westmern Reserve University, where he is the eighth
Churchill Schol ar. At gradua tion, Stephen re ceived
the Harland G. Wood Prize for outstanding work by
a gradua ting senior majoring in bio chem istry, the
Dayton C. Miller Prize to an outstand ing senior in
physics for the best thesis, the Leslie L. Foldy Award
to the outstanding senior in physics, the John Schoff
Millis Award to the senior with the best academic
record in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the
George T. Hunt Award to a senior outstanding in
leadership, scholarship, and service. Inducted into
Phi Beta Kappa as a Junior, he received the Junior
Award of Arts and Sciences for having the best
academic record at the end of five semesters and the
Chandrasekhar Prize as the most outstanding physics
major and was awarded the coveted four‑year Case
Western Reserve University Trustees Scholarship as
well as other scholarships and prizes. He was ranked
at the top of his class and has often taken six or seven
courses a semester.
Stephen’s interests span Physics, Biochemistry,
Engineering, Mathematics, and Mathematical
Biology. Stephen had an NSF Research Experience
for Undergraduates in condensed matter physics to
develop nanowire transistors from semiconducting
oxides with the goal of functionalizing the nanowires
PA G E 5
as sensors of biomolecules. He spent two summers at
Case on an NSF‑sponsored research project at the
intersection of Biology and Mathematics modeling
cellular decision‑ making processes during
chemotaxis (migration toward chemical signals).
One writer noted that Stephen was “more than your
typical straight‑A student, because of his willingness
and ability to explore novel and broad directions in
his research.” Another spoke of his having “the
interdisciplinary flexibility and the intellectual
ability to launch a stellar research career,” and yet
another wrote of “his highly developed sense of
social responsibility for the intellectual goals of
science” of his potential to make “significant
scientific contributions at the nexus of nano‑scale
physics, sub‑cellular biology, and molecular
medicine.”
Stephen has been deeply involved in humanitarian
work. When he joined Engineers Without Borders at
Case, there were only five active members, and he
worked to expand the membership to its current level
of more than one hundred students. He has partic‑
ipated in engineering projects to bring sustainable
clean drinking water to the Dominican Republic,
Thailand, and Cameroon. Stephen is a serious artist,
drawing and painting since his youth, and is also a
musician, playing guitar in a rock band. He plans to
do his PhD in Physics at Harvard.
MICHAEL V. GORMALLY is doing the Master of
Philosophy in Chemistry, pursuing research in the
design of small molecules that target nucleic acids
and modify biological functions in the hope of
developing new
therapeutic
approaches to
numerous areas
of human dis ‑
ease, including
can cer, working
in the laboratory
of
Pro fessor
Shan kar Bala su ‑
bramanian.
From Mountain
Lakes, New Jer ‑
sey, Mike gradu‑
a ted with a BS
in Chem istry
from Pomona
College, where he is the second Churchill Scholar. At
graduation he received the Brackett Chemistry Prize
and the Stauffer Prize in the Sciences. Inducted into
the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, he is first
author of a paper in Langmuir, one of the most
PAGE 6
Autumn 2011
important and most cited journals in the field
published by the American Chemical Society. His
research employs quartz crystal microbalance with
dissipation monitoring for the study of assembly and
behavior of polymer multilayer systems. His letters
speak of him as “just awesome” and as “a practicing
scientist who happens to be an undergraduate.”
Mike is the first Churchill Scholar to have pursued
the study of Medieval Latin throughout college, to
have investigated the literature of miracle healings,
and to have explored the connections between proto‑
science and the culture of modern medicine. He
played Varsity Water Polo (a sport that demands 25
hours a week of practice) and was also a Varsity
Swimmer and received the highest NCAA All‑
Academic Award of Outstanding for all four years of
athletic competition. He has done mountaineering in
Bolivia and Switzerland and enjoys hiking. After his
Churchill Scholarship Mike will do his doctorate in
Chemistry at Cambridge as an NIH/Cambridge
Fellow.
LEILA HAGHIGHAT is doing the Master of
Philosophy in Translational Medicine and Thera ‑
peutics, working in the laboratory of Dr. Nicholas
Morrell on the underlying patho‑biology of pulmon‑
ary arterial hypertension. From San Jose, California,
Leila gradu a ‑
ted summa cum
laude with a BS
in
Gen eral
Biol ogy with
Distinction
from the Uni ‑
versity of Cali‑
fornia at San
Diego, where
she is the sec ‑
ond Churchill
Scholar (and
the second in
three years).
At grad uation
she received
the F. Thomas Bond Out standing Academic and
Leadership Award of Revelle College for excelllence
in both aca demics and lead ership and the Saltman
Quar terly Service Award for her sig nif i cant con ‑
tributions to that research journal. As a senior in
high school, she was named a UCSD Medical
Scholar, one of twelve students accepted out of 4,200
applicants for a joint BS/MD degree (the latter at
Revelle College and the former at UCSD Medical
School). She completed her undergraduate degree in
three years, taking an unusually heavy course load
C HURC HILL NEWS
and receiving A+’s in almost two thirds of her
courses. A Goldwater Scholar and a Regents Scholar
(the most prestigious undergraduate award in the
UC system), Leila was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
as a Junior and received many other awards and
scholarships. She has been publishing her research
since high school and has worked in structural
biology, microbial genomics, nephrology, and
cardiovascular disease. She was twice an American
Heart Association Fellow at Stanford Medical School.
Her letters of recommendation speak of “her off‑the‑
chart academic performance,” of her being “a star
student, a published researcher, and a charismatic
student leader,” of seeing her “a top ranking
physician scientist and academic leader.”
Leila served as a tutor in a local public charter school
for students who aspire to be the first in their family
to go to college; she has been a Senior Staff Writer for
the student newspaper, a proactive leader of UCSD’s
peer‑reviewed undergraduate biology journal, and a
leader in student and academic affairs in UCSD’s
Department of Biology, which has more than 5,000
majors. She is deeply interested in presenting
scientific and medical research to the general public
and aspires to a multiple career in clinical medicine,
medical research, and scientific outreach. After her
year in Cambridge Leila plans to do her MD at the
University of California at San Diego.
DENNIS X. HU is doing the Master of Philosophy in
Chemistry, working in the laboratory of Dr. Steven
Ley to synthesize and study dentigerumycin (DenM),
a complex highly target‑specific natural antibiotic in
order to aid and design the next generation of
antibiotics and cancer medicines with greater
potency and fewer side effects. From Canton,
Michigan, Dennis graduated with a BA cum laude and
with Departmental Honors as well as with an MS in
Chemistry
from North ‑
western Uni ‑
ver sity, where
he is the sixth
Churchill
Scholar and
the fourth in
three years. At
grad u a tion he
re ceived the
Basolo‑Osper
Departmental Citizenship Award and the Chemistry
Department Scholar Award. A Goldwater Scholar, he
was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a Junior and
won numerous scholarships, grants, and awards. He
is first author of a paper published in the Journal of
CHU R C H I L L N E WS
Autumn 2011
the American Chemical Society — a rare accom ‑
plishment for an undergraduate — and the article
was featured on the journal’s cover. Dennis is the
first person to develop synthetic streptorubin B,
which is naturally found to reverse drug resistance in
late‑stage cancer cells and which was previously
thought to be too complex to create in the laboratory.
From April to September he worked in Shanghai
conducting research in synthetic organic chemistry at
the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry under
Prof. Dawei Ma (State Key Laboratory of Bioorganic
and Natural Products Chemistry, Chinese Academy
of Sciences). His letters speak of him as “a once‑a‑
decade super genius,” as being “at the absolute top,”
and as “heads and shoulders above them all.”
Dennis founded and directed a program that pairs
area high school students with Northwestern
student‑scientists to conduct scientific research
projects, founded a research‑based General
Chemistry course for undergraduates and mentoring
program for high school students, and was lead
facilitator in the Science Research Workshop that
help undergraduates to locate research laboratories
and to prepare research grants. A competitive
gymnast in high school, Dennis maintains a regular
workout schedule at a local gymnastic club. He
wrote and illustrated a comic book to explain
chromosomes. After Cambridge, he plans to do a
PhD in Chemistry at Stanford. In June Dennis
married Northwestern classmate and biologist
Jennifer Sanchez.
REBECCA A. KRALL is doing the Master of
Advanced Study in Experimental and Theoretical
Physics, a new program that combines courses and
research. From Kissimmee, Florida, she graduated
with University Honors and College Honors in
Physics from
Car negie Me ‑
llon Universi ‑
ty, where she
is the ninth
Churchill
Scholar.
At
graduation
she was in ‑
ducted into
Phi
Beta
Kappa
and
also received
the
Senior
Leadership
Award for her
outstanding
contributions
PA G E 7
to the Carnegie Mellon community and the Judith A.
Resnik Award given to an outstanding woman
graduating in the sciences and engineering who
plans to attend graduate school and whose academic
performance, creativity and vision demonstrate
potential for continued high achievement. A
member of the national honor society, Phi Kappa
Phi, Rebecca won the John Hall Family Scholarship
and the Mary Louise Brown Graham Memorial
Scholarship at CMU, as well as other scholarships
and research awards.
With no prior formal training in astro physics and
astronomy she excelled in an NSF REU at UCLA in
Physics and Astronomy, analyzing Hubble Telescope
multi‑ban imaging of a young binary star system
with multiple circumstellar disks. She has a special
interest in experimental high‑energy particle physics
and at Carnegie Mellon did research on four‑track
decay of the J/ψ meson. In addition to being a
Teaching Assistant and a Tutor in Physics, she
participated in CMU’s Science Outreach Program.
One writer spoke of “her sharp mind and
independence,” while another noted that for the first
time in his career he said to himself “this person is
clearly one of us,” describing her scientific writing as
“outstanding,” “organized, balanced, and author ‑
itative.” One writer admired “her hard work and
courage to see no bounds to her horizons” and
admitted that he could not see “no limits to how far
she will go.” Active in Women in Science, she was a
contributing writer to the international journal The
Triple Helix. After Cambridge Rebecca will do her
PhD in Physics at Harvard, where she has already
begun research in a high‑energy physics group.
TYLER A. MERZ is doing the Master of Philosophy
in Physics, doing research in the laboratory of
Professor Jacqui
Cole, where he will
be
her
fourth
Churchill Scholar.
From
Fair field,
Ohio, Tyler re ‑
ceived
his
BS
summa cum laude in
Engineering
Physics with Hon
ors in Engi neering
from the Ohio State
Univer sity, where
he is the second
Churchill Scholar. In addition to taking the honors
sequence in both Engineering and in Physics, he has
taken several courses at the graduate level. Inducted
into Phi Kappa Phi, he has won several merit
PAGE 8
A utumn 2011
scholarships and awards; at graduation he received
a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Honors
Collegium and the Smith Alumni Award from the
Department of Physics. A Goldwater Scholar, he had
one NSF REU at the OSU Center for Emergent
Materials and another at the Cornell Center for
Materials Research. Tyler had a Research Internship
in Science and Engineering from the Deutscher
Academischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) for the
study of condensed matter physics at the Technical
University of Munich; following his DAAD award,
Tyler was invited to serve as a National Ambassador
for the program throughout the United States.
First author of one paper and second author of three
others, he has presented his research in Brazil as well
as in the United States. One writer placed him “in
the top two or three percent of physics students
internationally,” and another remarked that he had
accomplished work “never done in any laboratory
worldwide.” All of his writers referred to his
exemplary leadership skills and his maturity, placing
him “on the road to a great scientific career.” Active
in scientific outreach programs, he brought engi‑
neering projects to local schools, mentored high
school girls in engineering, and served as a volunteer
Physics Tutor. After Cambridge, Tyler will do his
PhD in Applied Physics at Stanford with an NSF
Graduate Research Fellowship.
DAVID W. MONTAGUE is doing the Master of
Advanced Study (the new name for the former
Certificate) in Pure Mathematics. From Brighton,
Michigan, he received a BS with Highest Distinction
in Mathematics and with Highest Honors from the
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he is the
twelfth Churchill Scholar. At graduation he was
inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and received the
Outstanding Graduating Senior Award from the
Department of Mathematics and the Jerome and
Isabella Karle Math
and Natural Science
Award for being the
top
gradua ting
honors student in
Mathematics
and
Science. When David
enrolled at Ann Arbor
in the College of
Engineering,
he
became infatuated
with mathematics and
moved
into
the
College of Arts and
Sciences, where his record is littered with A+’s. He
has also studied at Kyushu University in Japan. The
C HURC HILL NEWS
co‑author of three published articles, he has a special
interest in number theory. A Goldwater Scholar, he
won the Astronaut Scholarship, the Wirt and Mary
Cornwell Prize for Mathematics ($10,000), and
William Leveque Award in Number Theory, among
many other scholarships and awards, and he was
elected to Phi Kappa Phi, the honors society. David
did three NSF REU’s, one at Grand Valley State
University, another at Williams College, and the last
at the University of Michigan. He served as the
course assistant in three advanced honors mathe ‑
matics courses. He has developed a passionate inter‑
est in Asian languages and cultures and has studied
Chinese and Japanese. His letters speak of his as
having “demonstrated not only infectious
enthusiasm and commitment but also the ability to
explore and create new knowledge,” of “his joy in
investigating and communicating results,” and as
“playing a mean game of ping‑pong!”
David plays squash, racquetball, and table tennis
and is also an active outdoors man enjoying
camping, rock climbing, and mountain climbing; he
has climbed Mount Rainier and Mount Shasta. He is
also a puzzle (word, number, logic, etc.) fanatic.
After his year in Cambridge David will do a
doctorate in Mathematics at Stanford with an NSF
Graduate Research Fellowship (he also won an
NDSEG Fellowship).
ETHAN W. SCHALER is doing the Master of
Philosophy in Micro‑ and Nanotechnology Enter ‑
prise, where he is pursuing his interests in micro‑
electro‑mechanical systems (MEMS). From Silver
Spring, Maryland, Ethan
graduated summa cum
laude in Mechanical
Engineering with Honors
and in Inter national
Engi neer ing from the
Univer sity of Maryland
at College Park, where he
is the second Churchill
Scholar. A member of
the Honors College and
also of the Gemstone
Program (a multi dis‑
ciplinary
four‑year
research program for
selected undergraduate honors students), he also
pursued his fascination with Japanese language and
culture studying at the Center for International
Exchange at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. A
Goldwater Scholar, Ethan won numerous
scholarships, grants, and awards. He did research in
Japan on three occasions and in the United States in
CHUR C H I L L N E W S
Autumn 2011
microrobotics ( the design and fabrication of a
mechanical energy harvesting and storage system
with applications in providing supplemental powers
to mobile MEMS devices), on the operational
efficiency of combined heat and power systems on
university campuses to develop a systems to
minimize greenhouse gas production, and in
nanophotonics. His letters speak of him as “stellar,”
“as motivating… Japanese students,” as “one of the
very best students that has ever enrolled in our
university,” and as belonging to “a small group of
elite students in this country.”
An active member of Engineers Without Borders,
Ethan worked on projects in Brazil, Burkina Faso,
Ethiopia, Peru, and the United States. He is an
outdoors enthusiast: he has backpacked numerous
portions of the Appalachian Trail, has done over
fifteen whitewater rafting expeditions, has climbed
Mount Fuji twice, and backpacked in the Japanese
Alps and northern isles. Ethan will do his doctorate
in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at
Berkeley with an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
ALICIA N. SCHEP is doing the Master of Philosophy
in Computational Biology with research on trans ‑
criptional regulation on the genomic scale in the
laboratory of Dr. Boris
Adryan. From Colum‑
bia, South Carolina, she
graduated with High
Distinction and with
Honors from three
depart ments (Biology,
Chemistry, and Human‑
i ties‑Social Sci ences‑
Arts) from Har vey
Mudd College where
she is the six teenth
Churchill Scholar and
where she was ranked
first in her class. At graduation Alicia was inducted
into Phi Lambda Upsilon (the chemistry honors
society) and received the Outstanding Senior Thesis
Award in Biology. A Goldwater Scholar, she won
several prizes, including the W.A. Brandenburg Prize
in Biology for her “outstanding performance and
promise in the field of biology.” Co‑author of two
papers, she did research in genetics at Harvey Mudd
and in microbiology at the New York University
School of Medicine. One writer remarked that “she
shows more insight into biological processes and
more creativity than most graduate students,” and
another spoke of her “phenomenal combination of
high intelligence, aptitude, commitment, and work
ethic.”
PA G E 9
Alicia was a Writing Consultant and the Senior
Biology Writing Fellow at Mudd. A member of the
college’s Honor Board, she enjoys ultimate frisbee,
soccer, and hiking and has been involved in the
Environmental Sustainability Club. After Cam ‑
bridge, Alicia plans to do her PhD in Genetics at
Stanford.
SAMANTHA DALE STRASSER is doing the Master
of Philosophy in Physics, working on energy col‑
lection from light
through the improve‑
ment of polymer cell
efficiency in the labo‑
ratory of Pro fessor
Sir Richard Friend.
From Wausau, Wis ‑
con sin, she gradu ‑
ated with a BS summa
cum laude and with
Department Honors
in Biomed ical Engi ‑
neer ing and a BS
summa cum laude in
Applied Math e mat ‑
ics from North west ‑
ern Uni ver sity, where she is the seventh Churchill
Scholar and the fifth in three years. Inducted into
Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, she has
received numerous grants and scholarships and was
a Goldwater Scholar. She was instrumental in the
invention of a technique to measure cell structure at
the nanoscale level, and her name will appear first on
the patent and publication. All of her letters call her
as the best student the writers have ever had: her
letters speak of her having “conducted … what could
be world‑class research in biophotonics using a
technique that, as recently as 2007, was thought to be
infeasible” and of “defying all expectations for an
undergraduate.”
Sam tutored fellow students in the programming
language MATLAB through Northwestern’s chapter
of the Society of Women Engineers and is a volunteer
with NU Splash!, a student organization for area
high school students. She is an accomplished
musician, playing piano, clarinet and saxophone, and
sings; she is interested in photography, poetry, and
cooking. After Cambridge, Sam will do a PhD in
Electrical Engineering at Northwestern.
DANIEL J. STROUSE is studying for the MPhil in
Computational Neuroscience in the Department of
Engineering. DJ, as he is known, graduated with a
BS magna cum laude in Mathematics and with a BA
magna cum laude in Physics from the University of
PAGE 1 0
Autumn 2011
Southern Cali ‑
fornia, where
he is the first
Churchill
Scholar. From
Port
Saint
Lucie, Florida,
DJ was elected
to Phi Beta
Kappa as a
Junior and Tau
Beta Pi as a
Sophomore.
He won many
scholarships,
including the
USC Presi den ‑
tial Scholar ‑
ship, as well as many awards and grants for his
research; at graduation he was awarded the USC
Order of the Laurel and the Palm, the highest honor
bestowed on graduating seniors.
Working in the pioneering field of computational
neuro science, DJ has done research in two
significantly different fields: he studied quantum
information theory at MIT and at the Institute for
Quantum Computing (Waterloo, Ontario) and had a
USC Provost Summer Research Fellowship to do
research at the Institute for Scientific Interchange in
Turin, Italy; and he did research in the application of
mathematical models to biology. An Amgen Scholar
at Stanford University, he studied network models
for their biological plausibility. DJ’s letters speak of
his research as “exceeding the wildest expectations.”
One writer noted, “Having people like Daniel in
your class is one of the things that make you feel that
being a professor is a privilege and challenge at the
same time,” while another stated, “he is one in a
thousand you will remember throughout your career
as a faculty member, and I am not exaggerating.”
DJ is a passionate advocate of improving the
efficiency and openness of scientific communication
and has co‑founded an open source Web platform.
He loves to hike and founded the USC Trekkers,
which now has some three hundred members; he
also scuba dives and climbs glaciers. After his year
at Cambridge, DJ will do a doctorate in theoretical
and computational neuroscience on a Department of
Energy Computational Sciences Graduate Fellowship
(he also won a National Science Foundation
Graduate Fellowship); he has yet to decide whether
to attend Columbia University, Princeton University,
or the University of Washington.
C HURC HILL NEWS
JONATHAN P. WANG is doing the Master of
Advanced Study in Pure Mathematics. From
Ashburn, Virginia, Jonathan earned a BS summa cum
laude with Highest Honors and an MA in Mathe‑
matics from Harvard University, where he is the
thirty‑second Churchill Scholar. Recipient of the
John Harvard Scholarship for outstanding academic
achievement as a sophomore, he had a Herchel
Smith Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
and won the Herb Alexander Award at graduation.
He did one NSF REU at Central Michigan University
and another at the University of Minnesota‑Duluth,
and he was also a Harvard College Program for
Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE) Fellow.
Jonathan’s interests lie at the intersection of algebraic
geometry and representation theory, but he wishes
to branch out into others like differ ential geometry
and algebraic number theory when he does Part III
of the Mathematical Tripos. A serious teacher,
Jonathan has been a
course assistant in
upper‑level mathe ‑
matics courses and a
peer tutor in Mathe‑
matics and Com ‑
puter Science. He
has published two
papers, one in Com ‑
mu nications in Alge ‑
bra and the other in
the Journal of Combi ‑
natorial Theory, Series
A, the premier jour ‑
nal in the field. One writer noted, “I wish my
graduate students had a similar capacity for learning
mathematics!”
Jonathan is active in Club Tennis, weight lifting,
running, and recreational swimming and enjoys
participating in programming competitions. After
Cambridge he will do his doctorate in Mathematics
at the University of Chicago.
EMMA V. YATES is doing the Master of Philosophy
in Chemistry, doing research on the oligomeric
precursors to amyloid formation in Alzheimer ’s
disease working in the laboratory of Professor Chris
Dobson and Dr. Tuomas Knowles. From Coconut
Creek, Florida, Emma receive an AB in Chemistry
with Highest Honors from Princeton University,
where she is the thirty‑eighth Churchill Scholar. At
gradua tion she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa
and Sigma XI, won American Institute of Chemists
Foundation Award for academic achievement,
leadership, character, likelihood to contribute to
society with scientific research, and won the sole
CHUR C H I L L N E W S
Autumn 2011
national Iota Sigma
Pi Undergraduate
Award for Excel ‑
lence in Chemistry.
She also won the
William
Foster
Memorial Prize in
Chemistry for the
rising senior with
the highest depart‑
mental GPA as well
as grants for her
research.
With
research interests
a c r o s s
biochemistry, syn ‑
thetic organic chemistry, physical chemistry,
spectroscopy, and nano‑technology, Emma became a
major player in several different research
laboratories. She has three papers soon to be
published. Her letters speak of her as “a rising star,”
“fervently creative,” demonstrating “an extra ‑
ordinary array of scientific and personal aptitudes,”
and “the most creative and promising researcher in
the field of organic chemistry… encountered at
Princeton.” Her initiation of collaborative work
between two research groups has been called
“extraordinary.” A reader of her Junior Paper on
bacterium quorum sensing called it “deep, creative,
well‑argued, and compelling” as well as the best
Junior Paper he had seen in thirty‑two years of
teaching.
Emma was the President of Princeton’s Bioethics
Forum, which she reorganized to begin public
PA G E 11
debates between scientists and philosophers and
which she redefined as a national organization
resulting in a national Undergraduate Bioethics
Conference. She was also co‑founder and Treasurer
of the Princeton Philosophical Society. Emma has a
passionate interest in the medieval and Renaissance
art of Germany and the Low Countries. After
Cambridge she will do a PhD in Chemistry and
Biological Chemistry at Harvard.
THE 2010‑2011 CHURCHILL SCHOLARS
Last year’s Churchill Scholars have settled into their
new programs, new research, and new jobs. Martin
Blood‑Forsythe has begun his doctorate in Physics at
Harvard. George Boxer, who was one of the top
scorers in the Part III examinations, is doing his PhD
in mathematics at Harvard on an NSF Graduate
Fellowship. And Maria Drout is also at Harvard
beginning her PhD in Astrophysics on an NSF
Graduate Fellowship. Zhou Fan is doing mathe ‑
matical research at D.E. Shaw, working with
Churchill Scholar Ron Dror. Simon Gordonov is
continuing research at Mount Sinai Medical School
and is applying for a PhD in Computational Biology.
Sameer Gupta has begun the MD‑PhD Program at
Harvard. David Karp is working at Jane Street
Capital, a quantitative proprietary trading firm in
New York. Daniel Lecoanet has begun his doctorate
in Theoretical Astrophysics at Berkeley on a Hertz
Fellowship. Stephen Linderman has entered the MD‑
PhD Program at Washington University. Maria
Monks also has a Hertz Fellowship and is doing her
PAGE 1 2
Autumn 2011
PhD in Mathematics at Berkeley. Kelsey Stoerzinger
has begun her doctorate in Materials Science at MIT,
Yi Sun is at MIT doing his PhD in Math, and Swati
Varshney, who continues her recently acquired
passion for jumping out of airplanes, is also in
Materials Science at MIT.
RECEPTIONS
FOR
CHURCHILL SCHOLARS
In the past year the Fnd held a variety of receptions
with alumni. During a visit to the University of
Washington there was a dinner for five Churchill
Scholars, and a visit to Stanford allowed a drinks
reception for some dozen Scholars. With the largest
concentration of Chruchill Scholars in the country,
the Boston area makes it easy to gather a large
group; some sixty Scholar attended a reception held
at the Harvard Faculty Club.
CHURCHILL SCHOLAR NEWS
1979‑1980
Carol Frost moved from the Office of Research and
Economic Development at the University of
Wyoming, where she served as Associate Vice
President and developed the university's geologic
carbon dioxide sequestration research program, to
the Office of the President, where she is Vice
President for Special Projects. In addition, she
continues her teaching and research in the
Department of Geology and Geophysics.
Lawrence Eron has migrated to the other side of the
globe, Hawaii, where he works as an Infectious
Diseases consultant at the Kaiser Foundation
Hospital in Honolulu. He is married with four
children. Last year he was the recipient of the
Clinician Award from the Infectious Diseases Society
C ON SORTIUM NEWS
of America.
1981‑1982
Jon Lenchner has been at IBM for the last seventeen
years and at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
for the last eleven. His recent work has focused on
making computer data centers and other facilities
and buildings more energy efficient. He has built a
robot for mapping and monitoring data centers, a
paper about which has just won the award for best
paper at the 2011 Conference on Autonomic
Computing. He was a member of the team that
developed the Watson Jeopardy‑playing computer
system, focusing on game strategy (what to bet on
daily doubles and final jeopardy, how to pick
squares, and at what confidence to buzz in, given the
game state). Jon has made several contributions to
discrete and computational geometry, is an IBM
Master Inventor, and in 2009, in honor of his fiftieth
birthday, took his family to Spain where Jon swam
across the Strait of Gibraltar. He has additional long
distance swims and robotic conquests in his sights
for the coming years.
Jon has been in sporadic contact with John Parkey
and Hutch (Robert Hutchinson), and a few months
ago dropped in on Dave Barrington at UMass. He
welcomes visits and correspondence from Churchill
Scholars from his year, or from other years, who may
be interested in IBM Research or share common
professional or academic interests.
John Parkey has retired and has settled in Carnation,
WA, where he bought a small farm and has taken up
horseback riding. He recently adopted a wild
Mustang and also purchased an Arabian horse and
plans to ride both in endurance races starting this
coming spring. John is Chairman of Issaquah
Grange, a community service effort to rebuild an
agricultural co‑op business and Managing Member
of Maidstone Farm, an equestrian training and
boarding facility.
CHUR C H I L L N E W S
Autumn 2011
1985‑1986
Laird Bloom is leading a group in antibody drug
discovery in the Global Biotherapeutic Technologies
at Pfizer in Cambridge, MA.
Frank Doyle became Director of the Institute for
Collaborative Biotechnologies, an Army‑funded
Center comprising the University of California at
Santa Barbara, MIT, and Caltech in 2010. In that role
and as Associate Dean for Research in the College of
Engineering at UCSB, he is leading a number of
research initiatives in Bioengineering at UCSB. On
the personal front, this past summer Frank
completed the Transpac 2011 Yacht Race, the longest
of the two oldest ocean races in the world (from Los
Angeles to Honolulu), competing with seven other
sailors aboard the boat “Prevail”, a Santa Cruz 52.
After ten and a half days, he and his crew finished
second in their division, which Frank deemed “a
fantastic experience!”
John Kolassa is Professor of Statistics at Rutgers and
a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematical Statistics,
the American Statistical Association, and the
International Statistical Institute. He is married and
has two children, John (12) and Maggie (9).
Karl Mueller left his position at Penn State a year ago
and is now at the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, where he is Science Lead for Magnetic
Resonance and a Laboratory Fellow in the
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory. To
celebrate his first year in the Northwest, he got
married in June and bought a house and a truck.
Andrew Nobel is at the University of North
Carolina/Chapel Hill with a primary appointment in
the Department of Statistics and Operations Research
(STOR) and a secondary appointment in the
Department of Biostatistics. He is the Director of
Graduate Studies for STOR but has successfully
avoided higher administrative duties, probably , he
notes, because of his behavior at faculty meetings.
His research is increasingly devoted to method ‑
ological and applied questions, though he still
devotes time to theory. He has had long‑standing
(and very enjoyable) collaborations with biomedical
researchers trying to better understand the genetic
basis of cancer. Andrew continues to play drums
(not very well) and is always on the lookout for good
music. Running and biking keep him moderately fit.
David Weiss has been a Professor of Physics at
Pennsylvania State University for ten years and was
recently named Associate Department Head. His
PA G E 13
research involves using lasers to make atomic gases
very cold. His laboratory group is performing
experiments with far‑off resonance optical lattices
(FORL’s) and other light traps. In particular, they
have developed ways to trap and cool atoms at high
density in FORL’s. These atoms are used in a variety
of ways, including creating and studying Bose
Einstein condensates, studying reduced dimensional
systems of bosons, precision measurments
(including an electron electric dipole moment
search), and quantum computation. David is
married to Susan Smith, and they have three
children, Eric (17), Lauren (15) and Alison (10).
1987‑1988
Claudia Testa continues to see patients with
movement disorders and does research mainly in
essential tremor and Huntington disease. In
addition to general movement disorders, she is the
Medical Director of the Emory Huntington Disease
Center of Excellence, which includes helping
coordinate clinical trials and other research
activities. Lately she has been working to form a
multicenter consortium on essential tremor to best
share data and to speed up work particularly on the
genetics behind this disorder. She is working more
in human subjects research instead of bench work
but misses the lab, but she says that she has too
many full time jobs as it is, including parenting!
1990‑1991
Tom Braden is Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst and was
recently appointed the Director of Graduate Studies.
1992‑1993
William Feehery has moved from Santa Barbara,
where he started and led DuPont's OLED display
business, to Wilmington, where he leads DuPont's
photovoltaics business.
1995‑1996
Jeff Marcus and his wife Joanne Seiff welcomed twin
boys Leo Frederick and Samuel Max Marcus into
their lives on June 1, 2011. Their dogs, Harry and
Sally, have each been assigned a baby to feed and
clean in order to help them develop a more mature
sense of responsibility. Somehow in spite of this
challenging assignment, the dogs still get more sleep
than the human beings. All are doing well in
Winnipeg, Canada where Jeff is an Associate
Professor and Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in
CHU R C H I L L N E W S
Autumn 2011
Phylogenomics at the University of Manitoba.
1996‑1997
Josh Sabloff and his wife Nina welcomed their first
child, daughter Nina in June, 2010.
Sadie Wignall and her husband Raphael Jacoby
welcomed their first child Milo Wignall Jacoby in
February, 2011, and moved to Illinois where Sadie
took up her new position as Assistant Professor in
the Departmen t of Molecular Biosciences at
Northwestern University. Sadie has already been
drafted to serve on the advisory team for UK
fellowships at Northwestern.
1998‑1999
Carmen Berg finished her PhD in Cell Biology in
2006 and her MD in 2008 from the Medical College of
Wisconsin. She is now in the Radiation Oncology
residency program at the Medical College of
Wisconsin in Milwaukee, which she will complete in
2013. She is in the American Board of Radiology
Holman Research Track residency pathway and is
conducting translational cancer research as well as
clinical radiation oncology training. She married to
Michael Bergom, who works as a surgeon in the area.
They have two daughters, Isabel (3) and Breya (6).
2000‑2001
Brad Friedman completed his postdoc at Harvard
University in the Department of Molecular and Cell
Biology and has moved with his family to San
Francisco for his new position as a Computational
Biologist at Genentech.
Jason Fuller serves as a Third Rock Ventures
Principal, a position to which he was promoted after
joining the company as Senior Associate in 2008. He
focuses on new company formation and due
diligence and is also actively involved in the support
and management of various portfolio companies.
Third Rock has a unique history of founding and
building companies in biomedical science and
technology.
Joel Miller has accepted a position at Penn State Uni‑
versity with a dual appointment in the Departments
of Biology and Mathematics.
Daniel Wesley was married in 2010 to Dr. Kristin
Leight, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia
University; their daughter Adele was born in
August. Daniel has changed careers and since last
PA G E 14
November has worked at a quantitative trading
group within Morgan Stanley called Process Driven
Trading.
2001‑2002
Jesse Bloom and his wife have moved to Seattle
where Jesse has started a laboratory investigating
virus evolution in the Basic Sciences Division at the
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Patrick Coles received his MPhil in Biochemistry and
in 2008 completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering
at Berkeley, where he maintained a strong interest in
physics. He is currently on a postdoc in the
Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, his home town. His current
research is theoretical and has two main focuses: (1)
basic quantum physics, asking questions such as
“How do we explain the everyday world that we see
on the large scale in terms of the quantum laws?”
and (2) quantum information asking questions such
as “Can the uncertainty principle allow us to
communicate messages with perfect secrecy?”
Nick Guydosh is a postdoctoral fellow in the
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at
the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research
is aimed at uncovering the basic mechanism of
translation by the ribosome and its relationship to
pathways responsible for the quality control of
messenger RNA. He was awarded a fellowship from
the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation to
support this work. Last summer he married Desha
Girod, who is an assistant professor in the
Department of Government at Georgetown
University. They live in Washington, DC.
Kristen Panfilio has been in Cologne, Germany, for a
bit more than three and a half years as a postdoc.
She is now going to stay even longer: starting in
January 2012, she is setting up her own research
group at the Institute for Developmental Biology,
University of Cologne, as an Independent Junior
Group Leader, under the auspices of the Emmy
Noether Program of the DFG (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft, the German national
research council). Kristen will continue her
comparative research on epithelial morphogenesis
during insect extra‑embryonic development. Staying
in Cologne also means that she will continue
enjoying such charms of the city as the annual
carnival celebrations.
CHUR C H I L L N E W S
Autumn 2011
2002‑2003
Dan Riordan has a posdoctoral appointment in the
laboratory of Professor Stuart Kim at Stanford.where
he is doing research on the genetics of aging and
longevity.
2005‑2006
Chris Hayward defended his thesis in the fall and
has moved to a postdoctoral research position in
Heidelberg at a new institute, the Hei delberg
Institute for Theoretical Studies (http://www.h‑
its.org/english/index.php), where he is working with
Professor Volker Springel, one of the leaders of his
field. Springel has recently written a hydrodynamics
code that uses a method not used before in
astrophysics (“moving mesh”): it combines the
advantages and avoids the disadvantages of the two
currently widespread methods and gives him and his
collaborators a significant competitive advantage.
Chris is very excited to work with Springerl, he and
his wife Tara are looking forward to living in
Heidelberg.
Nick Love submitted his doctoral dissertation in
Biology at the University of Manchester, where he
worked in the tissue regeneration laboratory of
Professor Enrique Amaya, with whom he did his
MPhil at Cambridge. In addition to his scientific
research, Nick has done a good deal of science
writing: he was shortlisted for the Guardian Science
Writing Prize and has contributed to Litmus, a
collection of science essays.
Emily Schwartz received her doctorate in Aerospace
Engineering from Stanford, where she won the prize
for the best dissertation in her field. She is now
working for Boeing in Seattle.
2006‑2007
Kat Allen, a graduate student in Geology at
Columbia University, won the Presidential Teaching
Award at Commencement in June. The award is the
University’s top teaching honor and carries an $8,000
honorarium. Kat noted, “Physicists can drop objects
and roll model cars down ramps to demonstrate
universal forces, but geologists can’t fit an entire
river delta into a lecture hall. If you’re stuck in a
classroom, you need to be creative.” In her
department Kat has instituted — shades of
Cambridge — a Friday coffee and cookie break, and
doing Cambridge one better, she summarizes recent
journal articles in verse.
PA G E 15
Viviane Callier finished her PhD in the Department
of Biology at Duke University and has taken a post‑
doctoral position at Arizona State University. Her
research, which moves back and forth between
mathematical biology and experimental biology, was
recently published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, centers on the regulation of body
size by oxygen supply in the developmental biology
of animals.
Joanna Mattis married Colin Evans, a British
Churchill alumus, on September 18, 2011, in North
Salem, New York. Many Churchill alumni were in
attendance, including fellow Churchill Scholars Ellen
Leffler (2006‑2007) and Jonathan Hollander (2005‑
2006), who was the Best Man. Joanna’s research at
Stanf ord is going well: she is midway through her
PhD in Karl Deisseroth's Neuro science/ Bio ‑
engineering lab and has a first‑author paper under
review, resubmitted just two days before her
wedding.
2009‑2010
Thomas Graham, a doctoral candidate in Biological
Systems at Harvard, published an article, Force‑
induced change in protein unfolding mechanism:
discrete or continuous switch? Graham TGW, Best
RB. Journal of Physical Chemistry B. 2011 Feb
17;115(6):1546‑61. Another paper on which he is a
co‑author has been submitted to Physical Review
Letters: Locating the folding barrier for single
molecules under force, Dudko OK, Graham TGW,
and Best RB.
PLEASE SEND NEWS!
Please send news of your professional activities
(books, articles, new appointments, presentations at
conferences, etc.) and of your personal life.
Your fellow Churchill Scholars are very interested in
reading about you
[email protected]
THE FOUNDATION’S WEB SITE
http://www.winstonchurchillfoundation.org
T HE F OUNDATION ’ S W EB SITE (please see next page)
remains a work in pro gres. It was entirely re ‑
PAGE 1 6
Autumn 2011
designed this past summer to reflect the style of the
Foundation’s recent publications. It also includes a
site map to facilitate navigation. By the end of
October of this year the site had almost 63,000 hits.
The site serves many purposes. It provides all the
information and forms that students require to apply
for the Churchill Scholarship: the link to register for
and to fill out the online application; complete
instructions; the cover sheet for the letters of
recommendation; and information about programs.
It also includes the relevant links to the University of
Cambridge, the Board of Graduate Studies, and
Churchill College. There is also a recent document
about the value of the Churchill Scholar for those
applicants who are also applying for MD and MD‑
PhD programs.
The site provides background information about the
Foundation and its Board of Trustees, as well as a
page on Winston Churchill, the content of which has
been kindly copied from the Winston Churchill
Memorial Trust in Great Britain.
For alumni of the Churchill Scholar Program there
are pdf versions of the newsletters since 2006 on the
Publications page and an online database that is
searchable by year, by last name, by undergraduate
institutions, and by field of study at Cambridge.
C HURC HILL NEWS
Hidden in the site is a photograph and brief
biography of the Executive Director.
The site includes as its centerpiece a statement from
one Churchill Scholar about his year at Cambridge
and a link to a long page of comments, a page which
is regularly updated as comments from more recent
Scholars arrive. Here are some of the comments you
will find on the site:
“Life seems to consist of a handful of key decisions.
For me, one such proverbial “fork in the road” was
when I was given the opportunity to attend the
University of Cambridge as a Churchill Scholar. As I
look back, it was an unforgettably adventurous year:
total immersion in the unique academic environment
of Cambridge, blessed with the chance to pursue my
research of interest in a world‑class lab. Indeed,
interacting with the other Churchill Scholars and
members of the University was humbling yet
inspiring. Also, as it was my first time truly living
abroad, my year residing in England was
unexpectedly informative and gave me a
significantly broadened my global outlook. I now
realize that this intense year as a Churchill Scholar
set the tone for the years that followed and prepared
me for a career anchored in science. In conclusion, I
feel extremely honored to have been selected as a
Churchill Scholar, and I wholly endorse the Winston
CHU R C H I L L N E WS
Autumn 2011
Churchill Scholarship for any budding US scholar
who seeks such a potentially transforming
professional and personal experience.”
“My year on the Churchill Scholarship was fantastic.
It changed my perspectives, set up many new and
exciting contacts, and helped me develop new goals
for what I want to get out of my career. At the same
time, I formed amazing friendships, traveled around
Europe, and learned to row with the Churchill
College Men's First VIII. I had so many "firsts" that
they are hard to keep track of. When I started
thinking about UK fellowships, I wasn't sure if it was
worth taking a year out of an already long MD‑PhD
track for a master's education that would probably be
dwarfed by two doctoral degrees. It was easy to
mentally write off the nebulous cultural experiences I
would have and the potential contacts I would make.
Looking back, I find it hard to believe that I was so
naïve – the year was one of the most e xciting,
interesting, and valuable of my life.”
The whole pro cess gave me perspective and
confidence as I move forward in my career.
Perspective to know that it is worth it to try
something different when I think it is a good idea,
and confidence enough to do it… I can’t say enough
about how much the Scholarship did for me. Aside
from the fun memories, it is enabling me to take
opportunities that I wouldn’t have been smart
enough to take without it."
“I look back on last year as one of the most important
years of my life. I will never be the same, and I am
better for it. Living in England made me think
seriously about a few political issues, historical
wonders, and cultural oddities which have enriched
my life ever since. Also, I learned the value of being
fiercely proactive about lab work. I learned to ride a
bicycle alongside cars. I learned to identify hundreds
of European bird species, and tens of tea varieties.”
PA G E 17
The link to publications includes earlier Newsletters,
as well as a new document on Medical School and
the Churchill Scholarship, the result of extensive
emails with Scholars who are currently in medical
school or who have finished their MD or MD‑PhD.
The site also has a link for online donations.
PLEASE DONATE!
The Winson Churchill Foundation of the United
States is a public charity and relies upon donations
to support the remarkable young men and women
who are awarded the Churchill Scholarship. The
principal expense of the Foundation is the Churchill
Scholarship Program. For many years, the Churchill
Scholarship lagged well behind in its level of
support in contrast with the other UK prestigious
scholarships, so much so scholarship advisors
reported that some students were unwilling to apply
for the Churchill. Currently the least expensive
program (Part III Mathematics) is £27,709
(approximately $44,600), and the most expensive
program (the MPhil in Translational Medicine) is
£31,769 ($51,148).
DONORS 2010
The Foundation is grateful to those Churchill Schol‑
ars, Friends, and Trustees who have con tributed to
the Churchill Scholar Program. The Foundation is a
charity and welcomes donations to keep the the
Scholarship Program strong. At the current rate of
exchange each Churchill Scholarship costs $40,000‑
$50,000.
CHURCHILL SCHOLARS
Up to $35
René Boiteau (2009)
Moira Gresham (2004)
Brandon Levin (2007)
Elizabeth Simmons (1986)
Adam Wolpaw (2003)
$36‑$50
Jonathan Bagger (1977)
Michelle Wang Baldonado (1991)
Christopher Batten (1999)
Christopher Beasley (1999
Rosalind Beckwith (2007)
Antonia Bluher (1984)
Michael Brenner (1965)
Ann Marie Cody (2003)
David Fike (2001)
PAGE 1 8
Autumn 2011
Do you remember the apple trees
behind the hostels on Storey’s Way?
Christopher Hayward (2005)
Cara Marie Malandro (2006)
Kipp Weiskopf (2007)
Saniyah Ahsan Leblanc (2003)
Katherine Leitch (2007)
Aaron Levine (2001)
Alexander Pekker (2001)
Brenda Rubenstein (2007)
Emily R. Russell (2007)
Jennie Traschen (1977)
Robert Tupelo‑Schneck (1997)
Patrick Ward (2005)
Bruce Maxwell (1991)
$51‑$75
Stephen Craig (1991)
Nathan Gouwens (2003)
Daniel Neill (2001)
Joanne Promsilow (1991)
Diane Thomson (1994)
Salil Vadhan (1995)
Vijay Sankaran (2002)
Yolanda Tseng (2003)
$76‑$150
Jakob Begun (1997)
Larry K. Benninger (1969)
Jeffrey Berman (1979)
Rameen Beroukhim (1991)
Chi‑Bin Bien (1981)
David Bomse (1975)
John Bossert (1996)
Thomas Cusick (1964)
Francis J. Doyle, III (1985)
Ron Dror (1997)
C HURC HILL NEWS
Adam Durst (1996)
Margaret Ebert (2003)
Peter Eisenhardt (1978)
Adrienne Erickcek (2003)
Lawrence Eron (1966)
Joseph Fields (1971)
Douglas Foy (1969)
Carol D. Frost (1979)
Lisa Gloss‑Lessmann (1988)
David Goodrich (1980)
Diane Graziano (1979)
Nicholas Guydosh (2001)
Jennifer Hampton (1995)
Paul Hmiel (1980)
Jason Johnson (1965)
Andrew Knapp (1979)
John Kuhlman (1992)
Larissa Lee (1999)
David Liben‑Nowell (1999)
Nikolaus Loening (1997)
William Russell Mann (1995)
Jeffrey Marcus (1995)
Joanna Mattis (2006)
Colin Phoon (1985)
Michelle Povinelli (1997)
Lawrence Riddle (1976)
Emily Riehl (2006)
Daniel P. Riordan (2002)
Mark Robbins (1977)
Joshuah M. Sabloff (1996)
Howard Scott (1975)
David R. Speth (1972)
Todd Squires (1995)
David Wright (1977)
James Jason West (1994)
Scott Wunsch (1992)
$151‑499
Laird Bloom (1985
Peter Blossey (1991)
Alexander Brown (1993)
David Dankworth (1986)
Malisa Troutman Dorn (1992)
Kenneth E. Gray (1966)
David Hinds (1988)
Thomas Jones (1972)
Jonathan Lenchner (1981)
Arwen Long (2001)
William Leaf‑Hermann (1984)
Keith Meyer (1972)
Peter Mucha (1993)
Krishna Niyogi (1986)
Leslie Phinney (1990)
Paul E. Rapp (1972)
Eric Rains (1991)
CHU R C H I L L N E WS
Michael K. Rosen (1987)
Alan H. Rosenberg (1968)
David Stern (1981)
Stephen Scherr (1980)
$500‑$999
Philip Cole (1984)
Nathan Dean (1965)
Edward W. Kaiser (1964
Eugene Katz (1966)
David Matsumoto (1982)
Charles McNally (1976)
Michael K. Rosen (1987)
$1,000 and above
Dmitry Green (1994)
Robert Hutchinson (1981)
Joel Miller (2001)
Peter Monaco (1989)
Mitchio Okumura (1979)
John Simpson (1964)
Frank Sottile (1985)
FRIENDS
AND
TRUSTEES
Up to $100
Mr. and Mrs. Eric Cody
Susie Elson
Autumn 2011
PA G E 19
$101‑$999
Dale Coudert
Earle I. Mack
Mary O'Keefe
Alberto Mariaca
Marguerite Mangin
Peter C. Patrikis
Dr. Wai War Phoon
$1,000‑$4,900
Jeremy Biggs
Roberto de Guardiola
William Lee Hanley
Torrence C. Harder
Thomas Hassen
Kessler Family Foundation
Nicholas Kirkbride
Margo Langenbach
Carl M. Loeb, III
Earle I. Mack
Robert Nederlander
Mandell Ourisman
Sallie B. Phillips
R&K Foundation
William D. Rollnick
Mr. and Mrs. Timothy J. Rooney
Wilbur and Hillary Ross
Elaine L. Schoch
A&T Vavasis Philanthropic Fund
PAGE 2 0
Autumn 2011
$5,000‑$9,999
C HURC HILL NEWS
BOARD
David and Nanette Burrows
John K. Castle
Marvin and Mary Davidson
Mario J. Gabelli
Joyce Lanier Milner Foundation
Katherine Johnson Rayner
$10,000 and above
Deborah L. Brice
Patrick A. Gerschel
Mary W. Harriman Foundation
David H. Koch
Hon. John L. Loeb, Jr.
Susan Lloyd
Alfred and Jane Ross
Jeff C. Tarr
Damon Wells
Winokur Family Foundation
OF
TRUSTEES
HRH The Duke Of Edinbugh, Honorary Trustee
Hon. John L. Loeb, Jr., Chairman
Patrick A. Gerschel, President
James A. FitzPatrick, Jr., Esq., Secretary
David D. Burrows, Treasurer
William L. Bernhard
Deborah L. Brice
Lord Broers
Randolph L.S. Churchill
MalisaV. (Troutman) Dorn (CS1992‑1993)
Mario J. Gabelli
Warren B. Kanders
Marguerite Mangin
Alfred Ross
Bruno L. Schroder
Emma Soames
The Lady Soames
Jeff C. Tarr
Sir David Wallace
DamonWells
Peter C. Patrikis, Executive Director
Please detach this form and mail it along with your donation. Thank you very much.
THE WINSTON CHURCHILL FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES
600 MADISON AVENUE - SUITE 1601
NEW YORK, NY 10022-1737
I wish to support the Churchill Scholarship Program and enclose my donation. Donations
may also be made online on the Home Page of the Foundation’s Web site. If you wish to
make a gift of securities, please call the Foundation at 212‑752‑3200. All contributions are
tax deductible to the full extent of the law. These are the recommended levels of
contributions for Churchill Scholars:
□ $35 ‑ 2006 ‑ 2011
□ $150 1963 ‑ 1999
□ $75 ‑ 2000 ‑ 2005
□ an additional gift of $_________
NAME__________________________________________________________ YEAR ________
ADDRESS ______________________________________________________________________