MIT senior Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli and graduates Abigail (“Abbie”) Schipper ’24 and Rachel Zhang ’21 have been chosen as Gates Cambridge Scholars, embarking on their graduate studies this autumn in their chosen fields at Cambridge University in the U.K.
Now commemorating its 25th anniversary, the Gates Cambridge program offers fully funded postgraduate scholarships to exceptional candidates from nations outside the U.K. The purpose of Gates Cambridge is to foster a global community of future leaders dedicated to making positive changes in the world.
Students keen on applying to Gates Cambridge should reach out to Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Career Advising and Professional Development.
Markey Freudenburg-Puricelli
Freudenburg-Puricelli is pursuing a major in Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, complemented by a minor in Spanish. Her enthusiasm for geoscience has driven her to explore various regions of the globe to conduct geological fieldwork. These experiences have inspired her to aim for a profession focused on developing scientific policy and environmental regulations to safeguard those most at risk from climate change. As a Gates Cambridge Scholar, she will seek an MPhil in environmental policy.
Upon her arrival at MIT, Freudenburg-Puricelli became a member of the Terrascope first-year learning community, which emphasizes experiential learning regarding worldwide environmental concerns. She subsequently took on the role of undergraduate research assistant in the McGee Lab for Paleoclimate and Geochronology, collecting and analyzing data to comprehend climatic aspects of permafrost throughout northern Canada.
Following a summer internship in Chile, where she investigated volcanoes at the Universidad Católica del Norte, Freudenburg-Puricelli joined the Gehring Lab for Plant Genetics, Epigenetics, and Seed Biology. Last summer, she visited Peru to collaborate with the Department of Paleontology at the Universidad Nacional de Piura, engaged in fieldwork and the preservation and organization of fossil specimens. She has also participated in sedimentology fieldwork in New Mexico, geological mapping in the Mojave Desert, and marine oceanography aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer.
On campus, Freudenburg-Puricelli is a passionate glassblower and has served as a teaching assistant at the MIT glassblowing studio. Additionally, she acts as a tour guide for the MIT Office of Admissions and has volunteered for the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences’ pre-orientation program for first-year students.
Abigail “Abbie” Schipper ’24
Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Schipper graduated from MIT with a BS in mechanical engineering and a minor in biology. At Cambridge, she will pursue an MPhil in engineering, focusing on medical devices utilized in pre-hospital trauma systems in economically challenged countries alongside the Cambridge Health Systems Design group.
While at MIT, Schipper was active in MIT Emergency Medical Services, offering her time on the ambulance and serving as the heartsafe officer and director of ambulance operations. Inspired by her involvement in CPR education, she helped establish the LifeSaveHer initiative, which aims to close the gender gap in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rates through the development of female CPR mannequins and related research. This team triumphed as the first-place winner of the 2023 PKG IDEAS Competition and earned the Eloranta Research Fellowship.
Schipper has also concentrated on developing medical devices suitable for low-resource or extreme environments. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted research in the lab of Professor Giovanni Traverso, working on a project that designed a drug delivery implant for areas with limited surgical access. During a summer internship at the University College London Collaborative Center for Inclusion Health, she collaborated with the U.K.’s National Health Service to devise resilient, cost-effective carbon dioxide sensors aimed at estimating the risk of airborne infectious disease transmission in shelters for individuals facing homelessness.
After graduation, Schipper interned at SAGA Space Architecture via MISTI Denmark, crafting life support systems for an underwater habitat designated for astronaut training and oceanographic studies.
Schipper was actively involved in the Concourse learning community, Sigma Kappa Sorority, and her living group, Burton 3rd. In her leisure time, she enjoys repairing bicycles and playing the piano.
Rachel Zhang ’21
Zhang earned her BS in physics from MIT in 2021. In her final year, she received the Joel Matthews Orloff Award. She then pursued an MS in astronomy at Northwestern University. An internship at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute further fueled her interest in the uses of machine learning in astronomy. At Cambridge, she plans to undertake a PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics.