They were chosen from a pool of 862 applicants nominated by their colleges and universities.
Four Indian Americans are among the 32 Rhodes Scholars who will begin graduate studies in the social sciences, humanities, biological sciences, and physical sciences at Oxford in October of next year. They were chosen from a pool of 862 applicants nominated by their colleges and universities. The scholars “inspire us not only with their accomplishments but also with their values-based leadership and selfless ambitions to better their communities and the world,” said Ramona L. Doyle, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust.
The scholarships were established in 1902 by Cecil Rhodes’ will and are provided in collaboration with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C., The Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other generous benefactors.
Indian American scholars include:
Mrinalini S. Wadhwa is a senior at Columbia University, majoring in both history and mathematics. She is investigating how religious knowledge is developed, transmitted, and codified into law in the context of the British and French empires, with implications for current debates over rights-based claims in our legal systems. She is also interested in languages, translation, topology, and geometry. She is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of several student journals, including the Columbia Journal of Asia. She has received fellowships to support research in archives around the world, including India, France, and the United Kingdom, and she is currently the chair of the Columbia History Association. She also co-founded a three-year English curriculum for low-income Indian students in New Delhi. She will pursue an M.Phil. in Modern European History at Oxford.
Suhaas Bhat, a senior at Harvard University majoring in social studies and physics, will attend Oxford for an M.Sc. in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing as well as an M.Sc. in International Health and Tropical Medicine. He co-founded a Harvard organization that provides peer-facilitated group psychotherapy to students. He helped organize Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, which resulted in the university divesting its endowment from the fossil fuel industry. He has eight peer-reviewed publications and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa’s Junior 24 cohort. He has worked as a machine learning researcher at DE Shaw Research, American Family Insurance, UbiquiTx, and Harvard’s Church and Duke’s Chatterjee labs.
Nayantara K. Arora is a senior at the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors College, majoring in Neuroscience with minors in Global Health and Chemistry. She studies two topics: global health biomarkers in Tunisia and the relationship between vasculature and Alzheimer’s disease. She has traveled to Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, and the United Kingdom as a Stamps Scholar and a Phi Beta Kappa Public Service Scholar to pursue her interests in global health. She is a State Department intern who produces a podcast about uplifting immigrant youth stories, plays the violin, and enjoys learning new languages. She will study Modeling for Global Health and International Health and Tropical Medicine at Oxford.
Aishani Aatresh is a senior at Harvard College studying complex biosocial systems. She is also a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government’s Program on Science, Technology, and Society, where she combines research in infectious disease prevention with a commitment to global public health. During the global pandemic, she worked with the New York City health and hospital system emergency response and then conducted research with the global Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to understand the dynamics of COVID-19. She worked with companies as a computational immuno-engineer to develop monoclonal antibody therapies against human disease targets. She also tutors at the Harvard College Writing Center. She intends to earn an M.Phil. in Nature, Society, and Environmental Governance at Oxford.
