Five University of Pennsylvania seniors and one alumna have received 2017 Thouron Awards to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom. 

Cole Hurwitz, a logic and information major from Portland, Oregon, will study machine learning and will conduct independent research in applied computer science as related to the autism spectrum disorder in the Institute of Adaptive and Neural Computation at the University of Edinburgh.

Joseph Kiernan, a diplomatic history and political science major from Haddonfield, New Jersey, hopes to study historical international relations and its application for contemporary foreign relations, particularly in Asia and the Pacific. He is a University Scholar with research focused on Cold War Asian international relations.

Suzy Landon, a health and societies major from Newton, Massachusetts, is applying to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to pursue a master’s in public health. She currently works as an undergraduate research assistant at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was a Thouron Summer Research Prize recipient in 2015.

Kate Samuelson, a political science major from Katy, Texas, plans to study social innovation in health. She currently works part-time at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the Penn School of Social Policy & Practice and the United Nations Association of Greater Philadelphia. Through the John Thouron Summer Prize, she conducted research on NGOs in Central America dedicated to pediatric cancer research at the University of Cambridge.

Tshay Williams, a sociology and Africana studies major from Amityville, New York, plans to pursue a graduate degree in visual anthropology. Her interests lie at the intersection of arts and social impact.

Anna Carapellotti, a 2015 graduate who majored in cognitive science with a neuroscience concentration, plans to pursue a PhD in psychology in order to study the effects of dance therapy on patients with neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease through the school’s Movement Innovation Lab.

The Thouron Award is a graduate exchange program between the University of Pennsylvania and British universities that aims to improve relations between the United States and the United Kingdom. Scholarship winners receive tuition and stipends for one or two years depending on the time required to earn a graduate degree. The Award was established and is supported by gifts from Sir John Thouron and the late Esther du Pont, Lady Thouron, of Unionville, Pennsylvania. More information is available at www.thouronaward.org/