Penn’s eight 2023 Thouron Scholars: (from top left to top right) Alisa Ghura, Shivani Nellore, Winston Peloso, Gabriella Rabito, (and from bottom left to bottom right) Srinidhi Ramakrishna, Thomas Russell, Oliver Stern, and Elena Tisnovsky (Photo from Penn Today).
Seven Penn seniors and one recent alumna were selected to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom as 2023 Thouron Scholars.
The Thouron Award recognized seniors Alisa Ghura, Shivani Nellore, Winston Peloso, Gabriella Rabito, Thomas Russell, Oliver Stern, Elena Tisnovsky, and 2022 graduate Srinidhi Ramakrishna for their academic achievement and ability to serve as student ambassadors.
The award will cover complete tuition for two years of study at any university in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1960 to enhance academic ties between Penn and the United Kingdom, the award provides “life-changing educational opportunities” to a select group of graduating seniors, recent graduates, professional students, or graduate students.
The unique backgrounds of the lauded scholars are underscored by an overarching dedication toward the award’s mission of global academic citizenship.
College senior Ghura, who is the current Chair of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships Student Advisory Board, plans to study environmental justice at the University of Oxford. There, she hopes to build upon her Brookings Institution featured research about the presence of environmental hazards in schools.
College and Wharton senior Nellore aims to study evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluations at Oxford. In the past, Nellore has conducted cancer research at the National Cancer Institute and volunteered at Project Stella to improve radiation oncology treatments in Africa.
Peloso, a College senior double-majoring in mathematics and physics and pursuing a master’s degree in physics through submatriculation, hopes to earn a master's in mathematics during his time abroad. Having contributed to research to the NASA Advanced Colloids Experiment and the SABRE dark matter search, Peloso hopes to explore quantum metrology through his Thouron Award.
College senior Rabito is a Perry World House Student Fellow currently pursuing research on mass atrocities. A former intern at the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and recently elected committee person of Philadelphia’s 27th Democratic Ward, Rabito hopes to pursue a master’s degree in international relations.
Russell is a senior studying international relations in the College, intending to pursue a master’s degree in international security studies at the University of St. Andrews. He is a 2021 recipient of the U.S. State Department's Critical Language Scholarship and has been involved in Russian political disinformation and Turkish militarism studies at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
College senior Stern studies political science and history. Stern is a Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Fellow, Perry World House Student Fellow, and former State Department intern. Stern intends to earn a master's degree in human rights at the London School of Economics.
Tisnovsky — a 2022 Hertog War Studies Fellow — is a current political science major and an investigative analyst intern at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. She plans to study intelligence and international security at King’s College London.
College graduate Ramakrishna builds machine-learning-driven personalization features for the streaming service Peacock. The former co-president of Penn’s Beyond Arrests: Rethinking Systematic Oppression student group, Ramakrishna hopes to achieve a master’s degree in the social science of the internet at Oxford.
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