Two Penn seniors named 2022 Rhodes Scholars
Two Penn seniors have been awarded 2022 Rhodes Scholarships for graduate study at the University of Oxford, Raveen Kariyawasam (left), from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, from Kimball, Nebraska. Kariyawasam is in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wharton School, and Thomas-Lewis is in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Penn’s 2022 Rhodes Scholars are Raveen Kariyawasam, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, from Kimball, Nebraska.
Kariyawasam is a double major in bioengineering with concentrations in computational medicine and medical devices in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and in the Wharton School with concentrations in finance and entrepreneurship and innovation.
Thomas-Lewis is a double major in cognitive science with a concentration in cognitive neuroscience, as well as health and societies with a concentration in public health, and a minor in neuroscience, in the College of Arts and Sciences.
“We are so proud of our newest Penn Rhodes Scholars who have been chosen for this tremendous honor and opportunity,” said President Amy Gutmann. “The work Raveen has done in health care innovation and accessibility and Nicholas has done to support student well-being while at Penn is impressive, and pursuing a graduate degree at Oxford will build upon that foundation. We look forward to seeing how they make an impact in the future.”
The Rhodes is highly competitive and one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world. The scholarships provide all expenses for as long as four years of study at Oxford University in England.
According to the Rhodes Trust, about 100 Rhodes Scholars will be selected worldwide this year, chosen from more than 60 countries. Several have attended American colleges and universities but are not U.S. citizens and have applied through their home country, including Kariyawasam in Sri Lanka.
Thomas-Lewis is among the 32 American Rhodes Scholars chosen to represent the United States. According to the Rhodes Trust, this year more than 2,300 American students began the application process, 826 were endorsed by 247 different colleges and universities, and 235 applicants from 76 colleges and universities reached the final stage of the competition.
Thomas-Lewis’s honors thesis is on the dual neurocentric medicalization of adolescence and addiction and its impact on stigma and agency among adolescents with addiction. He is a mentor who supports literacy development and emotional well being in West Philadelphia elementary schools through the Netter Center for Community Partnerships. Thomas-Lewis is captain of Penn’s varsity cheer team. He is a former speech captain for Penn Speech and Debate club. Thomas-Lewis also serves as a campus guide for the Kite & Key Society, is a vocal performer with the Penny Loafers, and is co-chair of the Admissions Dean’s Advisory Board. At Oxford, Thomas-Lewis plans to pursue master’s degrees in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation and in medical anthropology.
Penn engineers and collaborators have developed a transparent, micro-engineered device that houses a living, vascularized model of human lung cancer—a “tumor on a chip”—and show that the diabetes drug vildagliptin helps more CAR T cells break through the tumor’s defenses and attack it effectively.
Tumor-on-a-chip offers insight into cancer-fighting cells in immunotherapy
Penn engineers and collaborators have built a living tumor on a chip to expose how cancers block immune attacks, and how one existing drug could make immunotherapy like CAR T more effective against solid tumors.
Professor of city and regional planning Erick Guerra recently published a book exploring the economic and societal impacts of American highways. He explains some of the pitfalls associated with an ever-expansive highway system, arguing that spending more on highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues.
Penn urban planner Erick Guerra’s new book, “Overbuilt,” argues that additional spending on building more highways might not be the solution to the country’s transportation issues. In a Q&A, Guerra shares his insights.
Xin Sun prepares samples collected from the Eastern Tropical North Pacific aboard a research vessel. By adding stable isotope tracers to these vials, Sun and her team can track how different microbial groups convert nitrogen compounds into nitrous oxide, revealing how subtle shifts in oxygen and organic matter change the ocean’s chemistry.
Can tiny ocean organisms offer the key to better climate modeling?
In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.
Two X-ray plates from Arthur Goodspeed, believed to have created the world’s first X-ray image, were donated by his family to Penn’s University Archives.
