A University of Pennsylvania fourth-year student and graduate student have been awarded a 2026 Knight-Hennessy Scholarship, receiving up to three years of financial support to pursue a graduate degree and global leadership training at Stanford University.
Penn’s 2026 Knight-Hennessy Scholars are fourth-year Naseebullah Andar, from Kabul, Afghanistan, and graduate student Brianna Leung, from Little Neck, New York. They are among this year’s 87 scholars from 31 countries, chosen “to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders capable of taking on the world’s most difficult challenges.”
Andar is majoring in mathematics, economics and biochemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, and minoring in statistics and data science. He has conducted research with Francis X. Diebold and Jere R. Behrman on the statistical and economic dynamics of forecast ensembles in financial economics and econometrics, and with Rahul Kohli and Kiran Musunuru on diversifying base editors and precision prime editors in genetic engineering. He has been a teaching assistant in the Department of Mathematics, a Perry World House Student Fellow, and served as vice chair of the International Student Advisory Board. He is a Global Rhodes finalist, Dean’s Scholar, Lawrence R. Klein Prize recipient, Rose Undergraduate Research Award recipient, Phi Beta Kappa junior inductee, Simon Kuznets Fellowship Award recipient, Kleinman Fellow, Penn World Scholar, and University Scholar. He will pursue a master’s degree in computational and mathematical engineering at Stanford University, and hopes to pursue questions linking mathematics, economics, and biochemistry while contributing to broader policy discussions.
Leung is a graduate student in bioengineering with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science, minoring in neuroscience and healthcare management and engineering entrepreneurship. She built Empathera, a startup centered on pressure ulcer prevention, earning international and institutional awards for device design and business planning. She has also led research and development projects at small business and major corporations, such as Stryker. In Philadelphia, she revived Penn ADAPT, a student group that designs assistive technology for community partners. Through ADAPT, she has also launched Enginuity, a platform that streamlines request and solution-sharing between student engineers and people with disabilities. Her research with Lauren H. Hammer on adaptive deep brain stimulation algorithms has been awarded by Penn Bioengineering and recognized at several conferences. She leads fundraising work for the animal welfare nonprofit Auxan by designing and selling artwork from a vending machine and is a professional lion dancer with Penn Lions. She will pursue a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Stanford’s School of Engineering and School of Medicine and ultimately aims to advance technologies and strategies for healthcare access.
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