Clara Tandar, a first-year medical student at the Warren Alpert Medical School who earned her bachelor’s degree from Brown in 2025, was awarded a Marshall Scholarship, which provides full funding for two years of graduate study in the United Kingdom, where she will attend the University of Oxford. Forty-three Marshall Scholars were chosen from more than 1,000 applicants from across the United States.

Brown seniors Rishika Kartik, Elliot Smith and Hpone Thit Htoo earned honors as 2026 Schwarzman Scholars. Modeled after the Rhodes Scholarship, the Schwarzman program provides full funding for students to pursue a one-year master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing, one of China’s most prestigious universities. This year’s class includes 150 scholars from 40 countries, chosen from a pool of over 5,800 students — the highest number of applicants in the program’s 11-year history.

Bhumi Shah, a second-year doctoral student studying sociology, was named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar. The four-year national leadership development program supports doctoral students pursuing research at the intersection of health equity, policy and social change.

For each of Brown’s winners, the award will provide opportunities to expand their impact through global and national study, interdisciplinary research and leadership-focused professional development.

First-year medical student; Class of 2025 graduate

Clara Tandar’s academic path has been defined by her commitment to what she calls “odd pairings” in research.

The Brown Class of 2025 graduate earned a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and international and public affairs. Since her first year at Brown, she has worked in Associate Professor of Medical Science and Engineering Eric Darling’s lab, where she integrates engineering principles with molecular and cellular biology to develop hydrogel-based systems for disease detection and targeted drug delivery.

“I believe innovation happens at the intersection of different fields,” Tandar said. “I want to not only extend patients’ lives, but improve the quality of their lives as well.”

Tandar credits Brown’s Open Curriculum with encouraging her to explore widely, even when her interests — which she said spanned 17 academic departments by her eighth semester — seemed unconventional.

“Even if content from my Africana studies or journalism classes didn’t seem directly related to my research at the time, each of them have enhanced the way I have thought about drug development,” Tandar said. “Brown’s flexibility allowed me to be creative about my research while still being intentional about the impact I want to make.”

As a Marshall Scholar, Tandar will pursue graduate study in the United Kingdom, where she plans to examine therapeutic innovation through a patient-centered lens informed by the U.K.’s research, clinical and policy ecosystems. She said the opportunity will allow her to approach biomedical challenges with a broader understanding of how scientific discovery translates into real-world care.

After concluding her studies in the U.K. and completing her medical degree at Brown, Tandar hopes to become a physician-scientist in an academic setting where she can advance interdisciplinary therapeutic development while mentoring future researchers and clinicians.

Class of 2026
Concentrations: Accessible design and biology

For Rishika Kartik, scholarship, design and advocacy are inseparable. At Brown, she explores all three through an independent concentration she developed in accessible design, which pairs scientific research with art to reimagine how disability is understood and addressed.

“In medicine, vision is defined with clinical precision, but as an artist, vision is subjective: what we see depends on what we imagine,” the Brown University senior said. “Disability does not discriminate and neither does my work.”

That work has focused primarily on therapeutic art for blind communities, diabetes technology development for blind communities and disability bias amongst health care providers — all research that has informed Kartik’s approach as the founder of Touch & Create Studios, where she has helped teach nearly 70 accessible art workshops for 1,000 blind participants across seven states.

As a Schwarzman Scholar, Kartik will study in China, where she hopes to learn from large-scale approaches to disability inclusion amid the country’s rapidly aging population.

“The Schwarzman program, like Brown, emphasizes interdisciplinarity and diversity of thought,” she said. “Brown taught me to chase the right questions rather than the straightforward answers.”

When she returns from Beijing, Kartik plans to attend medical school and pursue a career as an ophthalmologist, designer and science communicator, shaping accessibility standards in medicine while continuing to amplify the voices of blind people through art and media.

“I am on a mission to make life more independent and more dignified for people who are aging or disabled,” Kartik said.

Class of 2026
Concentrations: Computer science and international and public affairs

Since he learned about the Schwarzman Scholarship in his second year at Brown, Elliot Smith coveted the award.

The Brown University senior researches how governments respond to emerging technologies across different political and regulatory environments. As a Schwarzman Scholar, Smith will be able to study China’s approach first-hand, especially as it relates to artificial intelligence and data regulation.

“Brown has encouraged me to think about how research connects to real-world challenges, and I hope to bring this mindset with me to Beijing,” he said.

At Brown, Smith has studied Chinese history and politics, taken Mandarin language classes, and in 2024, he spent the summer in Taipei through a grant awarded by the Watson School of International and Public Affairs. He’s also bolstered his own studies by working as a research assistant for Professor of International Studies and Political Science Peter Andreas’ research examining illicit trade and the development of the modern world economy.

“These experiences piqued my interest in China, and I knew that I wanted to learn more about the country firsthand after graduation,” said Smith, who previously served as editor-in-chief of the Brown Political Review.

After his time in China, Smith hopes to attend law school to build the legal expertise necessary to help shape international frameworks for technology governance.

“I’m especially interested in how the United States and China can manage technological competition while addressing shared global risks,” he said. 

Class of 2026
Concentrations: Economics and international and public affairs

Hpone Thit Htoo’s interest in geopolitics and economics is deeply personal. Growing up in Southeast Asia, he said he experienced firsthand how shifts in U.S.–China relations ripple through developing countries.

“Many developing countries find themselves caught between competition and cooperation,” the Brown University senior said. “I want to understand how they can adjust to this rapidly changing global order.”

Htoo said he’s always had an interest in how geopolitics shape markets, technology and global trade. As an undergraduate, he has pursued internships at Deloitte and the Center for Strategic and International Studies and joined student organizations like Brown Global Research & Consulting and the Brown China Summit. But it was a class on diplomacy and international development taught by Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs J. Brian Atwood that made the biggest impact on Htoo’s path.

“I really credit professor Atwood for pushing me to move beyond theory and into actually engaging with the real-world constraints and opportunities facing multilateral institutions,” Htoo said. “Through the class and Atwood’s firsthand experience at the U.S. Agency for International Development, I began to learn more about where these organizations succeed, where they fall short, and why thoughtful reform is so important.”

In Beijing, Htoo aims to better understand China and see what it means to learn, work and grow within a different political, cultural and institutional context — all experiences that will aid him in his future goals of working at a multilateral development bank on projects ranging from infrastructure investments and small-enterprise financing to food security initiatives.

“What draws me to this space is the ability to work across different sectors while still contributing to outcomes that are tangible and long lasting for communities,” Htoo said. 

Ph.D. student: Sociology

After earning her undergraduate degree in biology in 2020, Bhumi Shah went right to work studying mitochondrial diseases in a research lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. There, she met patient families whose experiences inspired her to contemplate big-picture questions related to health care access.

“Originally, I was like, ‘let’s find cures,’ but eventually I realized that my questions were also about access to essential care and things that were more structural,” Shah said.

Now a second-year Ph.D. student at Brown studying sociology, Shah is combining her clinical knowledge with social sciences coursework and demography training at the Population Studies and Training Center. Her research focuses on how structural, geographical and political barriers shape access to health care, and she’s currently working on a master’s thesis that explores how state-level policies can create fragmented, unequal access to essential medications.

As a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholar, Shah will receive an annual award of up to $30,000 for up to four years, participate in policy and leadership development trainings and coursework and receive training in health equity, the policy process and implementation, leadership and communication  — all exciting opportunities to help her grow as a researcher and health policy scholar, she said.

“Receiving this award is deeply meaningful to me because it affirms that this kind of research  — research that recognizes health care as a right rather than a privilege — is important and valued,” Shah said. “With this fellowship, I’m excited to develop evidence-based strategies that inform equitable health policy and promote access to care across communities. It’s truly a privilege to join a community of scholars committed to transforming research into real policy change.”