The winners were picked after a months-long evaluation process that assessed the best undergraduate university students and recent graduates in the United States.
Beginning in September of next year, they will begin graduate studies at premier academic institutions across the United Kingdom.
The newest Marshall Scholarship class, which has been running for 68 years, has a diverse spectrum of cultural, academic, and geographic backgrounds. Nationally recognized LGBT rights advocates, artists, award-winning documentary filmmakers, and scientists working on cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence and space travel research are among the cohort. With seven Marshall Scholars from the US Military Academy (three), the US Naval Academy (two), and the US Air Force Academy (one), this year’s class has the most Service Academy graduates in the scholarship’s history (two).
“Marshall Scholars continue to represent the very best of American society, from their ingenuity and creativity to their commitment to public service,” said Dame Karen Pierce, British Ambassador to the United States. “For decades, the scholarship has played an important role in supporting young future leaders such as these and I am excited for them to continue their development at some of the UK’s top universities.”
Nearly 1,000 applications were received from outstanding undergraduate students from across the United States for the program. Nearly a third of the 33 universities represented in the study are state or public universities. The University of New Hampshire received its first scholarship, while the University of Maryland – Baltimore County (1993) and Montana State University (2013) each received the award for the second time in their histories.
“We are delighted to host them in the UK and welcome them into the long and proud tradition of Marshall Scholars who have contributed so much to the US, UK and the world,” said John Raine, Chair of the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. “I am pleased in particular to welcome Scholars from Universities who have not sent Marshall Scholars before and hope even more US Universities will encourage candidates next year”
The program is primarily sponsored by the British government, but it also receives considerable assistance from world-renowned British academic institutions through partnership agreements, allowing winners to pursue graduate degrees in nearly any academic topic at any university in the UK. The class of 2022 will begin their studies in September at 21 different universities around the United Kingdom, ranging from London institutions like King’s College London to Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde.
The Association of Marshall Scholars (AMS), the Marshall Award’s official alumni organization, continues to provide financial support to the scholarship program. The British Schools & Universities Foundation (BUSF) also contributes generously to a scholarship program.
The complete list of the 2022 winners can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-government-announces-41-winners-of-2022-marshall-scholarships
The Marshall Scholarship Program, named after Secretary of State George C. Marshall, began in 1953 as an expression of appreciation to the people of the United States for the aid that the United Kingdom received following World War II under the Marshall Plan. It has remained unique among national scholarships for its prestige and scope since its inception, providing bright young Americans with the opportunity to study any academic subject at UK universities of their choice for up to three years. This has resulted in an unprecedented depth of knowledge in almost every academic field, with numerous university presidents, six Pulitzer Prize winners, one Nobel Laureate, fourteen MacArthur Fellows, two Academy Award nominees, two US Supreme Court Justices, and a NASA Astronaut among those who have benefited.
Marshall Scholars are guiding the discourse and direction of some of the most crucial issues of our day, with over 2,200 scholarships awarded to date.
Notable winners of the scholarship include:
- Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen Breyer and Neil Gorsuch
- William Burns, Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
- Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Anne Applebaum, Tom Friedman, Jeffrey Gettleman and Dan Yergin
- Ray Dolby, Founder of Dolby Laboratories and 1997 winner of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation
- Dr. Dan Barouch, Leading COVID-19 vaccine researcher and William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
- Reid Hoffman, Philanthropist and founder of social networking platform LinkedIn
- Anne McClain, NASA Astronaut who served aboard the International Space Station in 2018
- Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State for the State of Michigan
- Patrick Hovakimian, Associate Deputy Attorney General, US Department of Justice
- Joshua Oppenheimer, Academy Award-nominated documentary film director of The Act of Killing
- Nancy Gibbs, Former Managing Editor of TIME Magazine
- Roger Tsien, 2008 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry
- R.F. Kuang, Author of the Poppy War book series and 2020 winner of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer
