U. senior wins intl. award

Extraordinary.

That's the word that comes to mind for Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowships Art Casciato when he thinks of Vijay Sankaran, the College senior who yesterday received the prestigious Churchill Scholarship.

"I would have been flabbergasted if Vijay had not won a Churchill or some equivalent honor," Casciato said.

But in winning the scholarship, Sankaran becomes a member of a very select group. He is the first Penn student to win the award in over a decade.

"The Churchill Foundation established this scholarship in 1963 to promote exchange between the United States and Great Britain," Casciato said. "Since then, only four other Penn students have won the scholarship."

Scholarship winners receive an all-expense paid opportunity to study abroad for one year at Churchill College at Cambridge University.

The road to winning a Churchill begins with a nomination from Penn, one of the 63 colleges and universities eligible to nominate up to two candidates each year. The candidates must be majoring in engineering, mathematics or the natural sciences.

From the nomination pool, the Churchill Foundation chooses eleven recipients annually.

Sankaran's Biochemistry major made him eligible for the award, but that was not his only credential for the scholarship. The scholarship's criteria include GPA, Graduate Record Examination scores, capacity for original and creative work and personal character.

Casciato said that Sankaran was the perfect candidate.

"He had high grades, extensive independent research, a friendly personality, and most of all, a distinguished record of publication, including as a first author on a recent paper that appeared in the journal Biochemistry, one of the leading journals in the field," Casciato said.

In fact, with such qualifications, Casciato said he thought Sankaran would have made an excellent Rhodes Scholar.

"I was trying to get him to apply for a Rhodes or Marshall or some of the other prestigious awards, but he decided to apply for the Churchill, Thouron and Gates scholarships," Casciato said.

Sankaran was a finalist in all three, but eventually decided on the Churchill.

"I had wanted to go to England to study, but I had never gotten the opportunity," Sankaran said. "I knew it would be a good experience, I would learn a lot and furthermore, I'd be able to enjoy England itself."

What Casciato describes as the "healthy living allowance," that the Churchill Scholarship provides should help Sankaran enjoy himself.

"The Churchill award brings support for one year -- it pays tuition and fees, a healthy living allowance and nice stipend for travel," Casciato said. "It totals $27,000."

However, Sankaran's stay in England will not be all travel and leisure.

"I will be studying biochemistry -- how certain molecules in the cell are able to react with each other," Sankaran said. "I'll be working with one of the best crystallographers in the world. It is a good opportunity to learn from him, especially in a new environment, with new people and new things."

Sankaran said he is excited for the work that awaits him, and does not view it as a daunting task.

"Fortunately, [biochemistry] feeds into my work as an undergraduate in which I studied the biochemical bases for decision-making in cells," he said.

As for the award itself, Sankaran said that his initial reaction was one of surprise.

"I was completely shocked" when I heard the news," Sankaran said. "I had never expected to get one of these scholarships--they're extremely difficult to get."

Casciato, however, said he expected such achievement from Sankaran from the get-go.

"With all of his awards and activities and personality, Vijay was just a no brainer for all of these awards," he said.

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