Leading American students win 36 places on Britain’s prestigious Marshall Scholarship program

Washington, DC (16 December 2024) –The British Government today announced the 36 winners of 2025 Marshall Scholarships.  This new cadre – drawn from America’s most accomplished students – will begin graduate studies at top universities across the United Kingdom next year, following an intense selection process.

The Marshall Scholarship program was created by an Act of British Parliament in 1953 as a living memorial to former US Secretary of State General George C. Marshall and American assistance provided following World War II The scholarship allows up to three years of fully-funded graduate study in any academic topic at any university in the United Kingdom, home to 17 of the top 100 universities in the world. Over 2,200 Americans have received advanced UK degrees through the program since its inaugural class 70 years ago.

On announcing the new scholars, Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the US said:

“Marshall Scholars continue to represent the very best of American society, dedicating their time and effort to address the some of the great challenges of our time, from cyber security and Artificial Intelligence to advancing our knowledge of the universe.

“The Marshall Scholarship remains an integral part of the U.K.-U.S. relationship, established through British gratitude to General Marshall at the end of WWII.  We are delighted to welcome such a diverse and talented group of students to the U.K. next year as they continue their studies at some of the UK’s top academic institutions”  

STEM fields feature heavily in this year’s class, which includes accomplished young mathematicians, scientists, doctors and engineers. Among them is Kathryn Lampo (Columbia University), who has designed autonomous robotic systems for space exploration and will soon help launch Columbia University’s first-ever cube satellites into space.  Other winners include Travis Chai Andrade (Princeton University), who used historical postcards to examine representation and contemporary indigenous identity in his native Hawaii and Kaylyn Ahn (Northwestern University), a victims’ rights advocate appointed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to serve on the state’s Commission on Women and Girls.

John Raine, Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission said: 

“Marshall Scholars are powerful advocates for excellence across a wide range of disciplines – it is fantastic to see such a diverse group of future leaders in careers across international relations, science, technology, health and the humanities. We look forward to welcoming them into the proud tradition of Marshall Scholars who have contributed so much to the UK, the U.S and the world.”

The program received 983 applications this year from candidates representing academic institutions across the United States. 26 universities across 16 US States are represented by the winners.  Nearly a third of this year’s winners are from public or state universities as well as two winners representing U.S. military service academies. California State University- East Bay and the University of Nevada- Las Vegas received awards for the first time.

The program is principally funded by the British Government but also benefits from generous support through partnership arrangements with world-leading British academic institutions, allowing winners to pursue graduate degrees in almost any academic subject at any university in the UK. The 2025 class will take up their studies at 13 different institutions across the UK starting next September, ranging from Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The scholarship program also continues to receive generous support from the Association of Marshall Scholars, the official alumni organisation of the Marshall Scholarship. The British Schools & Universities Foundation also provides generous support and funds for a scholarship.

The full list of 2025 recipients:  

About the Marshall Scholarship

Named for Secretary of State George C. Marshall, the Marshall Scholarship Program began in 1953 as a gesture of gratitude to the people of the United States for the assistance that the UK received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Since that time, it has remained uniquely positioned among national scholarships for its prestige and scope: offering talented young Americans the chance to study any academic subject at UK universities of their choice for up to three years. This has given rise to an unprecedented breadth of expertise in almost every academic field, producing numerous university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, two Nobel Laureates, fourteen MacArthur Fellows, two-academy-Award nominees, two US Supreme Court Justices and a NASA Astronaut.

With over 2,200 scholarships awarded to date, Marshall Scholars are leading the conversation and direction of some of the most critical issues of our time. Notable winners of the scholarship include:

• Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer (ret.) and Neil Gorsuch
• William Burns, Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
• Pulitzer Prize Winners Anne Applebaum, Tom Friedman, Jeffrey Gettleman, Sarah Stillman and Dan Yergin
• Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry John Jumper (2024) and Roger Tsien (2008).
• Dr. Dan Barouch, Leading COVID-19 vaccine researcher and William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
• Kurt Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State, United States Department of State.
• Reid Hoffman, Philanthropist and founder of social networking platform LinkedIn
• Lisa Cook, Economist and currently the first African-American woman and first person of color to sit on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
• Gabe Amo, Congressman representing Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District
• Kris Kobach, Attorney General of the State of Kansas
• Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State for the State of Michigan
• Col. Anne McClain, NASA Astronaut and U.S. Army Colonel who will serve as Commander of NASA’s forthcoming SpaceX Crew-10 mission in February 2025.
• Ray Dolby, Founder of Dolby Laboratories and 1997 winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
• Rebecca F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and The Poppy War book trilogy

For media inquiries, interview requests or further quotes about the Marshall Scholarship and the recipients, please contact Josh Stanton at Joshua.Stanton@fcdo.gov.uk.