University of Pennsylvania(link is external) fourth-year Om Gandhi, from Barrington, Illinois, has been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship(link is external) for graduate study at the University of Oxford(link is external) in England.
The Rhodes, established in 1902, is highly competitive and one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world. The scholarship funds tuition and a living stipend for two or three years of graduate study at Oxford, and may allow funding in some instances for four years.
According to the Rhodes Trust(link is external), about 100 Rhodes Scholars will be selected worldwide this year, chosen from more than 70 countries around the world. Gandhi is among the 32 American Rhodes Scholars (link is external)chosen to represent the United States. According to the Rhodes Trust, this year nearly 3,000 American students began the application process; 865 were endorsed by 243 different colleges and universities; and 238 applicants reached the final stage of the competition.
Gandhi is pursuing a master’s degree in bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science(link is external), and concurrently majoring in neuroscience and health and societies with a public health concentration in the College of Arts and Sciences(link is external). He also is pursing minors in chemistry and health care management. Gandhi conducts research on developing new cancer therapies and diagnostic approaches at Penn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies(link is external), Penn Medicine’s(link is external) Neurosurgery/Radiology departments(link is external), and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia(link is external) Center for Childhood Cancer Research(link is external). He has co-authored more than 10 peer-reviewed manuscripts, presented at multiple national conferences, and received several research grants and awards. Interested in improving cancer care delivery, he spearheaded a national non-profit and volunteers with local clinics to provide health care services to uninsured patients with chronic diseases.
On campus, Gandhi is the director of Locust Bioventures(link is external), president of the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club(link is external), where he oversaw the nation’s largest undergraduate healthcare conference, vice president of the Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society(link is external), and editor-in-chief of the Penn Healthcare Review(link is external). He is a teaching assistant for organic chemistry and tissue engineering courses, and a statistics tutor at the Weingarten Center.(link is external) Interested in spreading cultural awareness, Gandhi has organized Holi and Diwali celebrations as president of Penn’s Hindu-Jain Organization(link is external) and is part of Penn’s Oracle Senior Asian Honors Society(link is external). At Oxford, Gandhi plans to pursue a DPhil in pediatrics with a focus in oncology, with a goal of attending medical school and practicing medicine as a physician-scientist.
Gandhi applied for the Rhodes Scholarship with assistance from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships(link is external).
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