Two Fremont residents have been awarded prestigious scholarships to pursue their scientific studies at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Aswini Krishnan and Kevin Chen, both 21, were among just 15 people selected for the 2018-19 Churchill Scholarship.
The scholarships, granted by the Winston Churchill Foundation, range from $50,000 to $60,000 and cover a year of research in the students’ pursuit of a master’s degree at the historic university. Both Fremont recipients said in interviews they hope to contribute to human health through their efforts.
“I was so thrilled,” Krishnan said of learning she had been selected. She attended Forest Park Elementary School, Challenger School Ardenwood in Newark and American High School while growing up in Fremont, then attended the University of California at San Diego.
Krishnan will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry this summer and begin her work at Cambridge in October. Her research into ribosomal structures will be supervised by Nobel Prize-winning biologist Venki Ramakrishnan.
“Basically, the overarching goal of our research is to try to better understand how cells produce protein,” she said.
The research could help scientists and doctors “better understand the progression of serious diseases, so that can be translated back to the clinic to help patients,” Krishnan said.
Chen said “it was definitely a little shocking” to find out he’d been selected for the award.
“They probably chose the wrong Kevin,” he said jokingly.
Chen attended Weibel Elementary, Horner Junior High and Irvington High schools before attending the University of Pennsylvania. He’ll graduate in the summer with a bachelor’s degree in physics, biophysics and biochemistry, along with a master’s in physics.
His laboratory work at Cambridge will be supervised by David Klenerman.
Chen said he’ll focus on “biology with a very chemistry and physics type approach” while at Cambridge.
“We want to investigate how immune cells in our body are triggered by different pathogens, by different pieces of viruses,” he said.
Chen said he hopes his research will help lead to better targeting of cancer cells while preventing or minimizing other negative side effects that could harm people treated with cancer immunotherapies.
Krishnan and Chen said they don’t think it was a coincidence that two of this year’s scholar class came from Fremont.
“We always had support from teachers for activities like Science Bowl and Science Olympiad, which really got my interest into science, which has really helped me in college when I’ve tried to pursue lab activities and research activities,” Krishnan said.
“It was a really great place to build my foundation in science and math,” she added. “There’s something special about Fremont.”
Chen said with help from his biology teacher Wai-Pan Chen at Irvington, he had an opportunity to complete a research experience at Stanford during the summer of his sophomore year, which furthered his natural interest in medicine and science.
“It definitely made me very prepared going to Penn,” Chen said. “It was very easy for me to keep up with the science courses and seek out professors because I already had some experience from high school.
“I’d say I was very lucky,” he said.
According to the foundation, the scholarship “was set up at the request of Sir Winston Churchill in order to fulfill his vision of US-UK scientific exchange with the goal of advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic, helping to ensure our future prosperity and security.”
The last time a Fremont native was selected for this scholarship was a decade ago.
This year, there were also two scholars selected from San Jose. Aishwarya Nene and Anna Thomas, who will pursue studies in translational biomedical research and information engineering, respectively.