Two out of only 46 American college students selected, seniors Amar Bhardwaj and Young Joon Kim were recently awarded the title of 2020 Marshall Scholar.

Columbia News reported earlier today that two Columbia seniors, Amar Bhardwaj (SEAS ’20) and Young Joon Kim (CC ’20) were awarded the highly selective Marshall Scholarship, which offers recipients hefty financial support to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom in any academic field of their choice.

The Marshall Scholarship has a unique history. It arose as an act of appreciation towards the United States for the support it provided the United Kingdom after World War II under the Marshall Plan. Established in 1953, the scholarship funds are provided by the British government and are awarded to around 50 American students each year.

The scholarship program is highly selective and consist of up to two years of graduate study (students have a choice between a one or two year path.) In 2019, 1,010 students applied and only 48 were selected.

Amar Bhardwaj is a sustainability researcher and advocate who will execute the program at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College in London. While there, he’ll be carrying out multidisciplinary research wherein the scientific, economic, and political factors of implementing renewable energy technologies are studied.

“My ultimate goal is to engineer solar fuels technologies that will be widely deployed,” said the chemical engineering major, who previously won the prestigious Udall and Goldwater scholarships. “To best position my research toward implementation, I need to also understand the facets of sustainable energy deployment that exist outside the lab,” explained Bhardwaj to Columbia News.

Young Joon Kim will be studying at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. At Cambridge, Kim will pursue a year-long master’s in computational biology research followed by a year at Oxford, where he’ll be pursuing a masters in the history of medicine.

Kim shared with Columbia News that “a central theme of Columbia’s liberal arts experience is to arm scholars with the motivation and ability to transcend disciplinary boundaries and work toward the larger goal of improving our society.” He explained that without the scholarship program, his aspirations to discover new therapies would not have been possible.

Among many other esteemed titles, Kim is the vice president of Columbia’s Table Tennis Club. Remember kids, you can be pre-med and still have fun (and be a Marshall Scholar on top of that).

More information on the Marshall Scholarship Program can be found here. Congratulations to both scholarship recipients!

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