February 12, 2009
University of Washington undergraduate earns prestigious scholarship
Undergraduate Honors student Sam Sudar is the most recent UW student selected for the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
The highly competitive scholarship supports graduate study at the University of Cambridge, England, and brings recognition of accomplishments and future promise. This year, 37 students from across the United States were selected from an original applicant pool of more than 700 students. Sudar is the fourth UW student to be named a Gates Cambridge Scholar since the awards were first made in 2000.
Sudar graduated from Mark Morris High School in Longview, Wash. An honors student, Mary Gates Scholar, and leader in the community of Mary Gates Scholars, Sudar is pursuing majors in neurobiology, philosophy, and English and a minor in music. As a research assistant in Professor Tom Reh’s laboratory in the Department of Biological Structure, Sudar’s work supports the lab’s aim of harnessing the regenerative potential of the mammalian retina. Sudar hopes to build on his undergraduate research experiences to study treatments that regenerate the central nervous system after damage. At Cambridge, he plans to study the regeneration of the spinal cord, with the goal of reversing paralysis due to injury.
Sudar’s additional honors and accomplishments include an honorable mention for the Goldwater Scholarship, multiple years on the Dean’s List, membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and the rank of Eagle Scout.
Established in October 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Cambridge scholarships are awarded on a student’s intellectual ability, leadership capacity, and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society throughout the world by providing service to their communities and applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others.
