UK Government announces 46 recipients of 2020 Marshall Scholarships
Washington (9 December 2019) – The British Government today unveiled 46 recipients of the 2020 Marshall Scholarships, the second-largest class in the scholarship program’s 66-year history. Chosen following a rigorous selection process, the highly accomplished university students and recent graduates from across the United States will take up degree courses at leading British universities in a wide variety of disciplines beginning in September 2020.
“The Marshall Scholarship scheme continues to be one of the most important and successful programmes the British Government supports across the world”
“The Marshall Scholarship scheme continues to be one of the most important and successful programmes the British Government supports across the world,” said Michael Tatham, Chargé d’Affaires at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. “The connections and friendships it creates are one of the most vital and valued building blocks of the UK-US relationship – and the fact that it is continuing to grow in its diversity and inclusion makes it even more valuable.”
Christopher Fisher, who chairs the Marshall Commission, added: “This is the third consecutive year in which we have been able to make more than 40 awards, and in the 2020/21 academic year we will have the largest ever number of Scholars studying in the UK. While this Programme’s origins are in recognising the generosity of the past, its continuing currency reflects the value of supporting the promise of the future, which remains fundamental to its nature.”
The 2020 Marshall Scholarship class will be among the scholarship’s most diverse, representing a wide diversity of cultural, academic, institutional and socio-economic backgrounds. Over one-third of this year’s class are from minority backgrounds and 61% of this year’s class are female scholars.
Three universities — Washington State University, George Washington University and Rutgers University – New Brunswick — will send Marshall Scholars to the UK for the first time in their schools’ histories, while the State University of New York – Stony Brook won only its second Marshall Scholarship ever and first since 2006.
Over one-third of scholars hail from state or public universities and five from military service academies. Overall, the 2020 class also represents a wide range of academic backgrounds and includes entrepreneurs, documentary filmmakers, record-holding Division I athletes, Shakespearean actors and climate scientists.
Winners were selected following a rigorous and high-competitive selection process that drew over 1,000 applications from top undergraduate students representing institutions across the United States. 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 2020 class will take up their studies at 16 different institutions across the UK beginning in September next year, ranging from the London School of Economics and Political Science to the University of the Highlands and Islands in the Scottish Highlands.
The scholarship program also continues to receive generous support from the Association of Marshall Scholars (AMS), the official alumni organisation of the Marshall Scholarship. Through the AMS, alumni provide substantial support to the program and current scholars on a continual basis in a variety of ways.
The full list of 2020 winners of the Marshall Scholarship are:
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 3 years. This has given rise to an unprecedented breadth of expertise in almost every academic field, producing numerous university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, one Nobel Laureate, fourteen MacArthur Fellows, two-academy-Award nominees, two 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. Prominent alumni of the scholarship program include:
● Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Neil Gorsuch
● Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Anne Applebaum, Tom Friedman, Jeffrey Gettleman and Dan Yergin
● William Burns, Former US Deputy Secretary of State
● Reid Hoffman, Philanthropist and founder of social networking platform LinkedIn.
● Anne McClain, NASA Astronaut currently serving aboard the International Space Station.
● Joshua Oppenheimer, Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker
● Dr. Douglas Melton, Xander University Professor at Harvard University and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
● Nancy Gibbs, Former Managing Editor of TIME Magazine
● Roger Tsien, 2008 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry
● Ray Dolby, Inventor of Dolby Sound and former Chairman of Dolby Laboratories
For media inquiries about the Marshall Scholarship and the recipients, please contact Josh Stanton, Head of Youth Engagement at the British Embassy, at Joshua.stanton@fco.gov.uk.
