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The Winston Churchill Foundation has named recent Harvard College graduate Andrew Van Camp ’23 one of 16 Churchill Scholars in science, math, and engineering for the 2024-25 academic year.
Van Camp will pursue a one-year M.Phil. degree in biological sciences at Cambridge University, conducting research on the microbiome at the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
“I was honored to be chosen for this award and am thrilled to embark on what will no doubt be a transformative experience,” said Van Camp, an applied mathematics concentrator with a secondary in Theater, Dance and Media. “I feel immense gratitude to my research mentors, the Leverett House Fellowship Tutors, and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships for their support and guidance over the past four years. By living and studying abroad for a year, I hope to gain new perspectives on how to do science effectively, and new insights from experiencing a different culture.”
As an undergraduate, Van Camp worked under Michael S. Gilmore at Mass General Brigham Mass Eye and Ear and Ashlee M. Earl, director of the Bacterial Genomics Group at the Broad Institute, investigating the evolution of antibiotic resistance in enterococci, a type of gut bacteria.
While at Harvard, Van Camp wrote the book and lyrics for an original musical, “Queen of Magic,” put on by the Harvard Radcliffe Dramatic Club, and an original play, “Negative Results,” featured at the Harvard Playwrights Festival. Since graduating, he has continued pursuing his theatrical interests as a sound technician and technical stage manager.
The Churchill Scholars program was established in 1963 at the request of Sir Winston Churchill as part of the founding of Churchill College. Awards are funded through a combination of annual donations and investment reserves, and cover tuition, a stipend, travel costs, and the chance to apply for a $4,000 special research grant.
Van Camp was also the recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship, the Detur Prize, and the John Harvard Scholarship.
