New Gates Scholars named

Seven seniors and one graduate from the University have been selected as Gates Scholars. The new scholarship program, set up by a $210 million trust from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, grants gifted graduate students the opportunity to study at the University of Cambridge for up to four years.

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of intellectual abilities, leadership capacity, and the commitment of candidates to solving global problems, especially in the areas of technology, health, equity, and education.

The Gates Scholars are as follows:

Sean Bennett of Downers Grove, Ill., recently finished his B.A. in cognitive neuroscience. As a concert pianist, Bennett became the youngest ever to perform Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto at age 14. Bennett’s activities at Harvard included research in linguistic theory with Noam Chomsky; starting BOND, a 160-member bisexual-gay-lesbian-transgender organization; and managing publishing businesses as a board member for Let’s Go/HAS. As a Gates Scholar, Bennett will pursue a Ph.D. in musicology, researching why certain songs get stuck in people’s heads.

Anne Berry, an economics concentrator from Denver, Colo., will continue her study of economics at Cambridge next year. As a master’s candidate, she will examine the international effects of government policy on incentives for innovation in dynamic industries. At Harvard, Berry has contributed to research on factors of local economic growth and economic history at the Center for International Development and the National Bureau of Economic Research. Before going to Cambridge in September, she will be working at the White House for President Bush’s chief economic adviser.

Eli L. Diamond of Newton, Mass., will graduate with a B.A. in the comparative study of religion. Diamond came to Harvard College following a year of religious study in Jerusalem. After completing a degree in the history and philosophy of science and medicine at Cambridge, Diamond will pursue a medical degree in the United States. He will be using the study of religion to investigate the history of psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He has been involved in several research projects related to health sciences and religious beliefs, and he is a published author of two articles in scientific journals.

Joanna Guldi of Dallas, graduated in March of 2001 with a degree in literature. Guldi wrote her thesis on the escapes and fantasies of America at the turn of the 19th century. At Harvard, she studied the history of leisure and American visual culture, as well as poetics and ritual. Guldi developed her interest in the history of leisure and escapism by spending a semester away from her studies working on primitive farms in France. She will matriculate at Trinity College, Cambridge, as a student of historical geography, in order to study the legacy of places used for private escapes from public and capitalist spaces.

Christopher Kirchhoff of Columbus, Ohio, is a history and science concentrator. Recognized by the Century Institute as a young progressive scholar and by the Ivy Council as one of Harvard’s top student leaders, Kirchhoff served as chair of the Institute of Politics Science and Technology Working Group, president of the Secular Society, and columnist for The Harvard Crimson. Kirchhoff was the youngest intern in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he reported to the presidential science adviser. His senior honors thesis was one of five in Harvard College to earn perfect marks from the prestigious Hoopes Prize committee. Kirchhoff will study for an M.Phil in politics at Cambridge.

Roman Martinez of New York City, studied American political history at Harvard. He has focused extensively on the Civil War and Cold War, and has been awarded Harvard’s David H. Donald Prize in American History. Outside the classroom, Martinez has served as editor of The Harvard Salient, the university’s conservative newspaper, and he has published articles in publications including National Review, The New Criterion, and The American Spectator. He looks forward to reading for an M.Phil. in European studies at Cambridge, and he intends to write his dissertation on the political thought of Winston Churchill.

Isaac Nakhimovsky of Hamilton, N.Y., is a history concentrator whose academic interests lie in the history of political thought, and focus on the 17th and 18th century debates about political economy, reason of state, republicanism and imperialism, and the origins of society. An avid musician, Nakhimovsky was principal violist of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and is involved in numerous other musical ensembles and activities. He plans to read for the M.Phil. in political thought and intellectual history at Cambridge before returning to Harvard for a Ph.D. in government.

Jessica A. Pepp, a 1996 graduate of the College, plans to take an M.Phil in philosophy.