Marshall Scholars Named

Seniors Nicolas Altemose, Katherine Buse, and Alessondra (Allie) Speidel have been awarded Marshall Scholarships to continue in their respective fields of study after graduation.

Altemose, an A.B. Duke Scholar, is majoring in biology and has been engaged in genomics research since his freshman year under Huntington Willard, director of the Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. He also cofounded an organization dedicated to fostering interest in science and research for high-school students. He intends to continue genomics research at the University of Oxford.

Buse, also an A.B. Duke Scholar as well as a Faculty Scholar, is majoring in English, with a focus on the role of catastrophe in contemporary fiction; she also edited The Archive, the student literary magazine. Through Duke's Franklin Humanities Institute, she organized a speaker series on “The Future of the Human Body” involving faculty members from across the humanities and medical sciences. She plans to enroll in one of only two master's programs in science-fiction studies in the English-speaking world, at the University of Liverpool, where she will study science fiction and contemporary literature.

Speidel, who is majoring in biomedical engineering, plans to concentrate in biomedical research and translational medicine at Imperial College London. At Duke, she is a Baldwin Scholar and, as a Pratt Fellow, has worked in the lab of biomedical engineering professor Kam Leong. She is also a member of the women's tennis team and has been part of the Collegiate Athletic Pre-Medical Experience program, which exposes female varsity athletes to the field of medicine through a variety of clinical experiences. Her ambition is to become a physician-scientist.

Established in 1953 to commemorate the Marshall Plan, the scholarships are awarded each year to a maximum of forty young Americans to finance graduate-level studies at a college or university in the United Kingdom. Since the founding of the program in 1953, twenty-two Duke students have received Marshall Scholarships.