Middlebury's Will Motley '06 awarded
Marshall Scholarship for study at Oxford
MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Will Motley, a Middlebury College senior majoring in biochemistry, is one of 43 American students awarded Marshall Scholarships to study at a university in Britain next year. The 2006 awards were announced on Nov. 28.
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| Will Motley '06 |
Motley, a native of Brooklyn, New York, has spent the past five summers at the Mount Desert Island Biological Lab in Maine, researching chloride transport through the protein that is defective in patients with cystic fibrosis. For his thesis work at Middlebury, he has recognized a gene that controls meiosis in mice and causes sterility if it is mutant. Since his sophomore year, he has worked as an emergency medical technician with the Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association. At Oxford, he plans to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology, producing animal models for a human disease and using them to test potential therapies.
Motley's level of achievement is shared by his fellow Marshall Scholars, past and present, including Middlebury's Aliza Watters '05, who was awarded a scholarship in last year's competition and is now pursuing a master's degree in 20th century English literature at Oxford.
The 2006 scholars will be studying in a range of fields, from nanotechnology and stem cell theory to development studies and linguistics. More than a thousand young Americans have been awarded Marshall Scholarships since the program's inception. Prominent past Marshall Scholars include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; former Wellesley president Nannerl Keohane; Providence psychiatrist Peter Kramer ("Listening to Prozac"); and Pulitzer Prize winning authors Tom Friedman of the New York Times and Dan Yergin ("The Prize"); Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh; and noted inventor Ray Dolby.
The Marshall Scholarships were established in 1953 as a British gesture of thanks to the people of the United States for the assistance received after the Second World War under the Marshall Plan. Financed by the British Government, the highly competitive scholarships provide an opportunity for American students who have demonstrated academic excellence to continue their studies for two to three years at the British university of their choice. The Scholarships are worth about $60,000 each.
In addition to intellectual distinction, Marshall selectors look for individuals who are likely to become leaders in their field and make a contribution to society. The exceptional academic achievements of this year's scholars are matched by their commitment to public service, artistic talent, and triumph over adversity.