Our Bureau
Washington, DC
Ramona L. Doyle, American Secretary of the Rhodes Trust, recently announced the names of the 32 Americans chosen as Rhodes Scholars. This list of 32 winners of this prestigious scholarship has 4 Indian Americans namely Aishani Aatresh, from California – North; Mrinalini S. Wadhwa, from New York – South; Suhaas Bhat, from Wisconsin; Nayantara K. Arora, from Oregon.
Dr. Doyle described this year’s class as “representing the United States–elected by 16 independent committees around the country meeting simultaneously will go to Oxford University in England in October 2024 to pursue graduate degrees across the breadth of the social sciences, humanities, and biological and physical sciences.”
These 4 Indian American scholars as part of the group of 32 from the United States will join an international group of Scholars chosen from 25 other jurisdictions (more than 70 countries) around the world. As per the release, the 4 Indian American Rhodes Scholars-elect for 2024 are:
From California – North, Aishani Aatresh is a senior at Harvard College where she is majoring in complex biosocial systems. Aishani is also a fellow at the Program on Science, Technology & Society at the Kennedy School of Government. During the global pandemic, she worked with the New York City health and hospital system emergency response and then undertook studies to understand the dynamics of COVID-19 with the global Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. At Oxford, she plans to complete an M.Phil. degree in Nature, Society, and Environmental Governance.
From New York – South, Mrinalini S. Wadhwa is a senior at Columbia University where she majors in History and Mathematics. She is co-editor-in-chief of multiple student journals, including the Columbia Journal of Asia, which she co-founded. She is the current chair of the Columbia History Association. Mrinalini also co-founded a program providing a three-year English curriculum for low-income Indian students in New Delhi. At Oxford, Mrinalini will pursue an M.Phil. in Modern European History.
From Wisconsin, Suhaas Bhat is a senior at Harvard University majoring in Social Studies and Physics. He co-founded an organization at Harvard that provides peer-facilitated group psychotherapy to students. He has developed machine-learning models for designing novel drugs. He has worked as a machine learning researcher. At Oxford, he will pursue an M.Sc. in Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing and an M.Sc. in International Health and Tropical Medicine.
From Oregon, Nayantara K. Arora is a senior at the University of Oregon, Clark Honors College, where she majors in Neuroscience, with minors in Global Health and Chemistry. She conducts research in two areas: global health biomarkers in Tunisia and the relationship between vasculature and Alzheimer’s disease. Nayantara is currently an intern with the State Department. At Oxford, Nayantara will pursue an M.Sc. in Modelling for Global Health and an M.Sc. in International Health and Tropical Medicine.
As per the release, Rhodes Scholarships provide all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford—ranked the #1 university in the world in some global rankings—and may allow funding in some instances for four years. Dr. Doyle called the Rhodes Scholarships, “the oldest and best-known award for international study, and arguably the most famous academic award available to American college graduates,” created in 1902 by the Will of Cecil Rhodes.
