Six Indians win Gates scholarship

Six Indians win Gates scholarship

Six Indians win Gates scholarship

Six Indians are among the 90 selected for the Gates Cambridge Scholarships, which enables these postgraduates with a strong interest in social leadership and responsibility to study at the ancient seat of learning.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarships were created in October 2000 when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a donation to the University of Cambridge of $210 million to establish the Gates Cambridge Trust.

The six Indians are, Yama Dixit and Anish Vanaik from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mathew Madhavacheril, Pritika Pradhan and Anjali Datta from Delhi University and Kiran Rachuri from IIT Chennai.

These 90 students from 32 countries were selected from more than 6,700 applicants. For the first time they include scholars from Bangladesh, Belarus, Mongolia, Montenegro, Slovakia and Venezuela.

Rajiv Chowdhury, the first Gates scholar from Bangladesh, has previously worked for the ICDDRB, an international centre for health and population research, which won the first Bill Gates award for global health in 2001. Chowdhury, who was previously a Commonwealth scholar at Cambridge, has also secured a USD 100,000 grant to start a collaborative study on cardiovascular disease in Bangladesh.

He said, "In 2003, during my clinical rotations as a fresh medical graduate in Bangladesh, I realised that, with a stethoscope in my hand, I could only help the person in front of me. An interest to make a meaningful difference to the overall health of millions of people steered me onto the public health track."

Gordon Johnson, Provost (CEO) of the Gates Cambridge Trust, said, "We are delighted to have selected 90 new Gates Scholars for entry in October 2009. The new Scholars will be part of a thriving community of Gates Scholars while in Cambridge and will become part of a growing and influential network of Gates Alumni upon graduation."

Johnson, further added, "Being part of the Gates community brings with it a responsibility to use an education gained at one of the world's leading universities for the benefit of society at large. We are confident that the new cohort of Gates Scholars will meet this responsibility in a range of interesting and creative ways."