After being named a Churchill Scholar by the Winston Churchill Foundation, Sixth College senior Vikram Juneja will be awarded $50,000 to complete a one-year graduate program at Cambridge University, where he plans to complete a master’s thesis on cancer stem-cell research.
Junega, a mechanical engineering major who has maintained a near 4.0 GPA during his time as a UCSD undergraduate, is the university’s first Churchill Scholar recipient and one of 14 scholars selected this year from a pool of 99 applicants from 63 colleges and universities nationwide.
Laurie Smith, a biology professor and UCSD representative for the scholarship program, nominated Juneja based on academic achievements, which include intensive, 30-hours-a-week research on cancer stem-cell biology at the UCSD School of Medicine and studies with the Instrument Development Group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Spray, an autonomous underwater glider.