The UK-based Gates Cambridge Trust has announced the 2020 class of U.S. Gates Cambridge Scholars.

The twenty-eight Americans will pursue graduate studies at the University of Cambridge in England — with nine studying for master's degrees and nineteen working on their PhDs — in fields such as clinical neuroscience, conservation, geography, medieval and Renaissance literature, and technology policy. Their research topics range from child trafficking prevention and adolescent mental health to traumatic brain injuries and neuroendocrine tumors.

This year's cohort includes Rebecca Turkington (PhD, history), who will focus on how women's transnational organizing in the Middle East and North Africa influenced global policy in the twentieth century; Nikhil Krishnan (PhD, physics), who will pursue an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how evolution acts on short- and long-range cell-to-cell interactions within bacterial biofilms; Madeleine Hahne (PhD, geography), who will examine the complex dynamic between religion and the environment, with a focus on how religious action or inaction can change environmental outcomes; and Cole Replogle (master of research and PhD, future propulsion and power), who will study hybrid-electric propulsion for unmanned aircraft.

Established in 2001 with a $210 million gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the program selects students based on their academic ability and potential for leadership.

"The U.S. Scholars-elect have been selected to reflect the mission of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s generous and historic gift to the University of Cambridge and its focus on social leadership," said Gates Cambridge Trust provost Barry Everitt. "Like their predecessors, this year’s cohort are an extraordinarily impressive and diverse group who have already achieved much in terms of their academic studies and leadership abilities and have already shown their commitment to improving the lives of others in many different ways."

For a complete list of the 2020 U.S. Gates Cambridge Scholars, see the Gates Cambridge Trust website.

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