Jan. 21 — A University of Oregon senior has been named a finalist for a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, an extremely competitive award to study at the University of Cambridge.
Amelia Kotamarti, who studies in the Clark Honors College, aspires to be a professor and researcher, with a particular interest in investigating questions about immune cell signaling and host-microbe interactions. She is set to graduate in the spring with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a minor in music.
She will fly to Boston for an interview on Jan. 23. If she receives the award, she plans to study at Churchill College in the lab of Virginia Pedicord in pursuit of a master’s degree.
Kotamarti said she has been interested in science since a young age when she saw her aunt struggling with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes motor neurons to deteriorate, leading to muscle weakness and loss of function.
She was 12 when she reached out to a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, which eventually led to her working in the lab of Carsten Schultz when she was a 17-year-old senior at Grant High School. It sparked an interest in learning about how research leads to clinical solutions. She has a particular interest in bacterial-host interactions and how the human immune system interacts with the microbes that live on and in the human body.
At the UO, Kotamarti has been an active undergraduate researcher, working in Michael Harms’ lab in the Institute of Molecular Biology. She has won numerous awards and scholarships, given talks and presented at conferences, and received research funding for several projects. She also sings with the University Singers and previously played flute with the UO symphony orchestra.
“Amelia is curious, brilliant, hardworking, caring, and excels at everything she does,” Harms wrote in a letter of recommendation.
In his lab, she operates at the level of a third-year Ph.D. student, Harms wrote, reviewing literature, planning her own experiments, collecting high-quality data, and communicating her science effectively.
“Maybe most importantly, she is continually curious,” he added. “She does the work because she wants to know.”
Amelia advanced as a finalist after earning a nomination from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, affirming her outstanding academic and research portfolio and likelihood to succeed as a postgraduate student at Cambridge, said Kevin Hatfield, assistant vice provost for Undergraduate Research and Distinguished Scholarships.
“This achievement is a testament to Amelia’s unsurpassed initiative and her faculty mentors’ guidance as she has fostered a strong and longstanding relationship with the Pedicord Lab, housed within the Department of Medicine at Cambridge, including attending weekly lab meetings virtually for the past three months,” he said.
Scholarships for UO Students
The Office of Distinguished Scholarships provides comprehensive advising and guidance to students and recent alumni who are interested in exploring and applying to highly competitive national and international scholarships and fellowships to support graduate study and career pathways.
A directory of distinguished scholarships and a list of UO distinguished scholarship recipients and finalists are available on the office’s website. Students and their mentors are encouraged to contact the office at urds@uoregon.edu.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation established the Gates Cambridge scholarships in 2000 with a $210 million endowment to support outstanding graduate students’ study at the University of Cambridge. The scholarship covers the cost of a post-graduate degree and includes funding for academic and professional development. Each year about 80 full-cost scholarships are awarded, including about 25 to U.S. students, with just over 1 percent of applicants receiving the award.
Criteria for choosing scholars include academic excellence, choice of course, a commitment to improving the lives of others, and a capacity for leadership. Since 2001, the program has awarded more than 2,000 scholarships to students from more than 100 countries.
Two UO students have been awarded Gates Cambridge scholarships. Biology major Amelia Fitch received the award in 2016. Alex Mentzel, a German major, was named a Gates Cambridge scholar in 2022. Two other students advanced to the department and finalist rounds respectively: Micah Woods, who majored in environmental science and philosophy, and neuroscience major Nayantara Arora, a Rhodes Scholar. All four studied in the Clark Honors College. Kotamarti was able to meet with all four during her preparation for her interview.
— By Tim Christie, Office of the Provost Communications