PHILADELPHIA-- The University of Pennsylvania's Lauren Rachel Zeitels is among 40 U.S. students awarded 2006 Gates Cambridge Scholarships.  The sixth-annual contingent of new Gates Scholars, selected from countries around the world, will begin graduate studies at the University of Cambridge, England, in October.  Zeitels plans to pursue a master's degree in medical science there.

Zeitels, of Warren, N.J., will graduate this spring from Penn's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. in biochemistry and an M.S. in chemistry.  

As a sophomore, Zeitels was recognized nationally when she was selected as a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar.  At Penn, she has won the Roy and Diana Vagelos Challenge Award as well as the Dean's Scholar Award.  She is also a member of the Vagelos Scholars Program in Biochemistry and the Benjamin Franklin Scholars Program and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior. During the summer of 2003, she served as an intern at the National Institute on Aging. She is currently co-president of Penn's chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Since its creation in 2001, the Gates Cambridge Scholarship Program has supported the graduate study of 527 students from 72 countries.  Zeitels is the 14th  Penn student to be a Gates Scholar.

In applying for the award, she worked with Penn Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships, which is directed by Arthur D. Casciato.