Student Honors
Senior Wins Prestigious Churchill Scholarship
Robert Penna ’07 was determined to get into his first choice for a graduate
program. When he applied to Churchill College at Cambridge University, he hoped
his hard work and motivation would pay off.
His years of studying, research, and determination have not only opened the
door to Cambridge but helped secure one of the nation‘s most prestigious
awards—the Churchill Scholarship.
Penna heads to England this fall to embark on what he describes as “a
year of intense math” at Cambridge University, where he will pursue a Certificate
of Advanced Study in Mathematics.
“It‘s a tremendous honor and I am very humbled to be in such company,” Penna says.
“I think the award very much reflects how fortunate I am to have the
guidance and support of my family, friends, and mentors.”
Only about 10 such scholarships are awarded annually to students for graduate
study in engineering, mathematics, or science. The scholarship covers all tuition
and fees, which is about $25,000, and includes an additional $20,000 for living
expenses and $1,000 for airfare.
The Churchill Foundation, founded in 1959, created the program to give American
students of exceptional ability and outstanding achievement the opportunity
to pursue graduate education at Cambridge.
Students must have outstanding achievement in academic work, high scores on
the Graduate Record Examination, capacity for original, creative work, and
demonstrated concern for the critical problems of society. Other participating
universities include Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Cornell.
Penna, of Eden, N.Y., says he applied to the program because it is a unique
opportunity to explore different areas of mathematics.
“I can broaden myself a bit now. You can understand the physics better
by seeing it from different perspectives,” he says.
Rochester‘s Churchill Scholars
Robert Penna ‘07 is the fourth Rochester
student to receive a Churchill Scholarship in the past 10 years. Other recent
scholars include Loren Cerami ‘02, an optics
major, Aaron Master ‘99, an electrical
engineering major in the College and an applied music (saxophone) major at
the Eastman School, and Bradley Allen ‘96,
a mathematics and optics major.
The graduate program at Cambridge will allow Penna to strengthen his background
in advanced mathematics and physics and, ultimately, he says, enable him to
work across disciplines. An added perk, he notes, is that it will afford him
his first experience traveling abroad.
“I will be part of an international community, and the teaching style
will be different,” he says. “The more approaches I experience, the deeper
my understanding will be.”
Penna, who will complete a bachelor of arts with honors in mathematics and
a bachelor of science degree in physics this May, already has an established
record as a researcher.
With Alice Quillen, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, he has
coauthored a paper exploring the effect of solar storms on the space environment
at Earth that was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
For the past few years he has worked with Eric Blackman, professor of theoretical
astrophysics, to investigate the magnetic pressure and viscosity in accretion
disks, celestial areas where gas and interstellar dust accumulate near stars
and other space objects.
Blackman says Penna has the right skills and motivation to become a successful
scientist.
“One of the things that struck me about him is that he seems to be one
of the most mature undergraduates I‘ve encountered,” Blackman says. “Some
students don‘t get on that path until they reach graduate school and
even then some have trouble transitioning between coursework and research.”
When Penna finishes the master‘s program at Cambridge, he plans to return
to the United States and pursue an advanced degree in physics or astrophysics.
“He has the right balance of confidence, ability, humility, and independence”
says Blackman. “He doesn‘t just do what he‘s told; he goes
off and finds out what he needs to know.”
—Enid Arbelo
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