Penn State student wins 2005 Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Penn State student wins 2005 Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Penn State student Aaron Coble is one of 38 students from the United States to have been offered a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. He will join his fellow Gates Scholars -- highly talented young men and women from around the world -- to begin his graduate studies in computer science at the University of Cambridge in England this fall. Their multicultural, multi-national presence at Cambridge enlivens and enriches life there, in laboratories and libraries, in classroom discussions, at dining-table debates and on playing fields. Coble is the third Penn State student to be awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, following Mohit Bhende in 2001 and Heather Agnew in 2003.

Since the start of the Gates Scholarship Program in 2001, more than 200 scholars have completed their studies at Cambridge, and have now gone on to other fields of endeavor around the world. They already are starting to contribute solutions to many of the difficult issues, fulfilling the intention of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation when the scholarships were established. As Bill Gates has written, "we need highly educated leaders, skilled in research and analysis, who will undertake a creative approach to defining and solving problems so that we can address the injustices and inequities around our world. Gates Cambridge Scholarships give young people an opportunity to develop and refine such skills. In Cambridge, Gates Scholars are able to work with distinguished faculty and other equally bright students from many different countries and cultures. On graduation from Cambridge, Gates Scholars are in an ideal position to bring new vision and apply their learning to the benefit of society at large."

The Gates Scholars currently at Cambridge in 2004-2005 come from 58 different countries including Algeria, Argentina, Estonia, Ethiopia, Nepal, New Zealand, Thailand and Turkey. Gates Cambridge Scholars are chosen after a series of interviews which take place at different times of the year for different countries. Candidate interviews for new Gates Scholars from the United States were held on March 4-5 in Annapolis, Md., and awards have been offered to 38 students. Because of the multi-national make-up of each year’s entering contingent, and the wide variety of academic calendars in their home countries, including many in the southern hemisphere, the roster of new Gates Scholars arriving in 2005 from countries around the world, and the list of all Gates Scholars at Cambridge in the academic year 2005-2006, including those returning, won’t be final until the autumn. The definitive list will be published in October, when a further announcement will be made giving details about those studying in Cambridge.

For more information about the Gates Cambridge Scholarship program, including the current yearbook profiling all the current Gates Scholars, check http://www.gates.scholarships.cam.ac.uk online.