Brown University senior wins Marshall Scholarship

Brown senior Rachel Pepper will use her Marshall Scholarship to pursue her interest in math and physics at the University of Cambridge. Pepper is one of 40 American students named this year as recipients of this prestigious award.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Brown University senior Rachel Pepper, a biophysics concentrator, is one of 40 students across the country to receive a 2002 Marshall Scholarship. British Ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer announced the winners of the prestigious award Dec. 5.

Pepper will use the scholarship, which funds two to three years of study at any British university, to pursue a second bachelor’s degree – in mathematics – at the University of Cambridge. Pepper was drawn to the Cambridge math program because it places a heavy emphasis on theoretical physics. She plans to complete the degree in two years.

A resident of Denver, Colo., Pepper was the recipient last year of a Goldwater Scholarship, a national scholarship awarded to promising young scientists. She credits the enthusiasm of her faculty adviser, Xinsheng Ling, assistant professor of physics, for her decision to pursue physics at Brown and to continue that interest at Cambridge.

“It was clear to me from the first week of her freshman year that she was a gifted and talented student,” says Ling. “She showed me a project she did in high school and I was very impressed by the originality. She’s the kind of student who makes teaching at Brown such a pleasure.”

The Marshall Scholarships, financed by the British government, were established in 1953 to thank the people of the United States for the assistance Great Britain received after World War II under the Marshall Plan. The highly competitive scholarships are worth about $50,000 each.

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