1 Rhodes, 2 Marshall scholars win

By Michelle Jin     12/2/10 6:00pm

Three seniors will head to the United Kingdom next year to pursue graduate studies on Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. Will Rice College senior Ye jin Kang is one of 32 American Rhodes Scholars this year. Will Rice senior Anthony Austin and Sid Richardson College senior Jingyuan Luo are two of the 31 students nationwide who have been selected as Marshall Scholars."This is really an exciting year," Caroline Quenemoen, director of Fellowships and Undergraduate Research, said. "I believe this is the first time that we've had two Marshall Scholars in one year, and I believe it might be the first time that we've had a Marshall Scholar and Rhodes Scholar in the same year."

The Rhodes Scholarship provides full expenses for graduate studies at Oxford University. The Marshall Scholarship provides students with two fully funded years of study at any institution in the United Kingdom.

While the Office of Fellowships will review the application of every student who wants to apply for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, it will only nominate a few Rice candidates to move forward in the application process. This year, there were 14 Rhodes applicants and seven Marshall applicants. In September, a faculty committee at Rice nominated seven Rhodes and two Marshall applicants to move forward in the competition.

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"Anybody at Rice can apply, but that doesn't mean everybody should apply," Quenemoen said.

Fighting infectious diseases

Kang, who is majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology and policy studies in global health as well as minoring in biochemistry and cell biology, will pursue two master of science degrees, one in global health science and another in global governance and diplomacy, at Oxford.

"I often find that when I study infectious diseases, I lack a lot of knowledge in the area of how to develop vaccines and clinical trials, and the global health degree will fill in those gaps," Kang said.

She said she wants to study governance to help her work with policy makers to improve health care systems.

"When you fight infectious diseases you have to work with ministries of health and governments," Kang said. "I've found that a lot of ministries of health are corrupt, so you need to find a way to work really well with them because in order to create sustainable change, you need to work with the government."

Kang has already done work tackling tuberculosis as a clinical intern at National Masan Tuberculosis Hospital in South Korea and studied the effects of the disease on victims in Zambia. Additionally, Kang has traveled to Mexico with Rice students through Global Medical Training and to Honduras as part of the health education team with Engineers Without Borders.

After obtaining her degrees from Oxford, Kang plans on applying to medical school. She hopes to eventually become a physician and work with the World Health Organization one day.

While she is excited to have won the Rhodes Scholarship, Kang describes the application process as very intensive.

"Preparing for this is kind of like a three-credit course," Kang said. "You've got to put in so much dedication to it. If you are not committed to going to Oxford, it's not worth your time."

She also encourages other students at Rice to make an impact and be independent-minded.

"I would encourage freshmen and sophomores to think about the big picture that is Rice, and think about what is missing from the big picture," Kang said. "Seek to fill that gap, and propose your ideas to others. Don't get discouraged if the first five people discourage your idea; the sixth person might think that it's the best idea ever."

Advanced mathematics

Austin, a Marshall scholarship recipient, plans to pursue a master of advanced study degree in Part III of the Mathematics Tripos at the University of Cambridge and a master of science in pure mathematics at Imperial College London. Austin was doing research in applied mathematics this past summer with Computational and Applied Mathematics Professor Mark Embree. He said Embree had talked to him about the Part III program and encouraged him to apply for the Marshall Scholarship.

Austin said the programs he chose will integrate his interests in engineering and mathematics.

"One of the things I hope to do is to use my knowledge and experience from engineering to spot places where theory that's being developed in the mathematical community can be applied to the solution of engineering problems," Austin said.

For his senior design project in electrical engineering, Austin is on a team working on an unmanned aerial vehicle to Mars.

After two years in the U.K., Austin plans on obtaining a doctorate and eventually returning to academia to become a professor.

"After grad school, I would like to become a university professor to research and teach the subjects I love for the rest of my life," Austin said.

Since he has never studied abroad before, Austin said he is excited to study at Cambridge, which historically was home to many famous scientists and mathematicians over the years.

"I think it will be a really good experience for me, both as a person and as a professional, to get out there into the rest of the world and see how people do things, before I sit down and pick a graduate school," Austin said. "This is going to be a real, real adventure."

Biomedicine and society

Luo, a biochemistry and cell biology and policy studies double major, has also picked two programs that suit her interests and her goals. She will use the Marshall Scholarship to obtain a master of science degree in biomedicine, bioscience and society at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a master of research degree in stem cell biology at Imperial College London.

Luo said she is particularly interested in policies related to science and technology and hopes to gain a different perspective in the U.K.

"As I started working with the [James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy] and noting the policy differences between the U.S. and the U.K., I thought that this would be a really good opportunity not only to get the educational experience but to really immerse myself in the policy environment there," Luo said.

As a Century Scholar, Luo conducted biological research as well as policy research at the Baker Institute on stem cell research. She is interested in the different approach that the U.K. has to stem cell research.

"From a policy perspective, [the U.K.] has a very different approach to things like stem cell research," Luo said. "The U.K. has developed a very systematic and rational response to advances in biotechnology where the U.S. tends to not really address the issue until there's a problem. The U.S. is very reactionary in its policy stance, and right now I don't think we have a very good reaction at all in our response to stem cell research, particularly embryonic stem cell research."

While she started off with scientific research, she became interested in the policy aspect of science and technology after her sophomore year.

"The summer of my sophomore year I worked with the National Science Foundation with the Baker Institute's Summer in D.C. program, and I realized that there was this gap in understanding between science and policy," Luo said. "That's when I started shifting over to do a little bit more policy work."

After studying in London, Luo plans on coming back to the United States to pursue a law degree.

While she is abroad, Luo is looking forward to the culture she will experience in the U.K. and the people she will meet. She is also excited that the Royal Opera House is close to where she will be studying.

Despite having done vastly different things as undergraduates at Rice, all three scholarship recipients were very fit for what their scholarships provided them, Quenemoen said.

"You don't do this because it's another notch in your belt," Quenemoen said. "You do this because there's an opportunity there that suits you and will get you to one day where you hope to be.

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