WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 19, 2010 -- Williams College senior Nathan Benaich has been awarded the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at Cambridge University.

Benaich, who is from Switzerland, aspires to train as an M.D./Ph.D. specializing in stem cell biology and cancer. His hope is to translate basic research in stem cell biology into effective therapeutic solutions for treating cancer patients.

At Williams, Benaich is a candidate for a B.A. in biology with honors. He is working in Professor Lara Hutson's lab, investigating the role of mutated heat shock protein 27 in causing Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease, the most prominent neuromuscular disease among humans.

He spent his junior year at the University of Oxford as a visiting undergraduate student in biochemistry. He has participated in the Whitehead Scholars Program at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working in the laboratory of Dr. Robert A. Weinberg, and is in the Class of 1960 Scholars Program in biology at Williams.

At Williams, he is on the editors committee of The Clovehitch, an academic journal, and a member of the Peer Health Alliance. At Oxford, he was secretary of the Oxford University Photographic Society and a member of The Oxford Union, the Biochemical Society, the Scientific Society, and the Investment Club.

Over 8,000 people applied for the scholarships. In early February, U.S. candidates were interviewed in Annapolis, Md., and the first scholars were then selected. Among them is Williams College alumna Emily Gladden '07. In late March applicants from other countries were interviewed. Candidates were selected on the basis of intellectual ability, leadership potential, a commitment to improving the lives of others and ability to make a good fit with Cambridge. In all, 80 students were selected.

Benaich is the fifth student from Williams to be named a Gates Cambridge Scholar, following Gladden '07, Shannon Chiu ‘08, Alan Rodrigues ‘07, and Shawn Powers ‘04. 

The scholarships were instituted in October 2000, with a donation of $210 million by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Cambridge. The international scholarship program enables outstanding graduate students from outside the United Kingdom to study at the University of Cambridge. 

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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students' educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.

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