Very few people can say they attended the university where Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Prince Charles graduated. But even fewer, like Mackenzie Simper, can say they were paid to attend.
A senior in mathematics at the U, Simper was awarded the Churchill scholarship, which pays for one year at the University of Cambridge in England to complete a master’s of advanced study degree.
The scholarship amount is between $50,000 and $60,000 and is typically rewarded to 14 United States students in science, math and engineering, but an additional recipient was awarded this year. The funds cover tuition and fees, a living allowance and travel money to and from the UK, said Michelle Taliaferro, distinguished scholarship advisor.
This is the second year the U has offered the scholarship to students, as universities need to be approved by the Winston Churchill Foundation in order to submit student applications.
Simper represents the university with countless research hours and a passion for mathematics. In her letters of recommendation, two of the professors saw her more as a colleague than a student, Taiaferro said.
“It really speaks to how she tackles mathematics and how skilled she is,” Taliaferro said.
Simper started preparing last spring and went through the U’s endorsement process in the fall. The U interviewed four students and chose two that went into the pool of about 400 applicants. From there, it was more interviews and playing the waiting game until one day, she received a call.
“I had a phone interview, but it was just kind of a formality because I heard right on the phone that I actually won,” Simper said. “It is satisfying to have such a long process end in success.”
Simper believes her involvement in research as an undergraduate played a big role in her selection. She currently works with Tom Alberts, assistant professor of mathematics, studying stochastic heat equations and the Bak-Sneppen model, a random model of evolution. The research team is currently working on a paper to publish the results. Simper also worked on dynamical systems last summer with Bjorn Sandstede, a math professor at Brown University.
After completing her masters in pure mathematics at University of Cambridge, Simper hopes to complete a Ph.D. and eventually become a professor so she can teach and continue researching.
Simper was one of nine women who were awarded, a record number since the scholarship’s start in 1963. Churchill College, one of 31 colleges at the University of Cambridge, was founded in 1960 to focus on math and science as well as UK-U.S. relations. The college has educated 28 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and engineers.
“Cambridge, as a whole, is the power-house of math and science in the UK,” Taliaferro. “[The scholarship] really opens an amazing opportunity for students to come and study in the UK, especially in the STEM fields.”
@carolyn_webber