The scholarship, which is offered annually to only 15 people, is considered one of the most prestigious and competitive international fellowships available to American students planning graduate study in the United Kingdom. Churchill Scholars are chosen from select universities nationwide in the disciplines of science, mathematics, and engineering.
Mandyam will graduate from Penn in May with a bachelor’s degree in physics, mathematics, and biophysics, along with a master’s in physics from the School of Arts and Sciences. At Cambridge, he plans to pursue an MPhil in Physics degree. Upon returning to the U.S., he says he hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in physics with the goal of becoming a professor of physics at a research university.
The Churchill Scholars program was established in 1963 at the request of Winston Churchill to fulfill his vision of a scientific exchange between the United States and the United Kingdom with the goal of advancing science and technology. The scholarship covers tuition and travel expenses, provides a stipend, and offers a chance at a research grant.
Mandyam volunteered teaching a weekly science class at the Science Leadership Academy, a Philadelphia public high school. He also created a weekly rhetoric elective class, The Art of Public Speaking, for the school that is part of a Penn community service course. In addition, he created and taught a weekly elective class at a Philadelphia public middle school on effective public speaking and persuasion skills. He is supported by a College Alumni Society research grant to study public speaking anxiety remediation in young students and has received NASA’s Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium scholarship in recognition of his outreach.
At Penn, he is a peer advisor in the Vagelos MLS program, a math and physics tutor, and a public speaking coach for the biochemistry senior thesis class. He has been a teaching assistant for five courses, including a Ph.D.-level biophysics class. He also is an editor and staff writer for Under the Button, the satire division of The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
