This fall, William Allen '12 will study at the University of Cambridge as one of 14 U.S. college graduates awarded the Churchill Scholarship. The prestigious scholarship gives awardees the opportunity to pursue a master's degree in the sciences, engineering or mathematics at Cambridge.
"It's a chance to be part of a very rich scientific community," said Linda Dunleavy, associate dean of the college for fellowships. The scholarship covers school fees, living expenses and transportation.
Participating colleges can nominate up to two candidates each year for the scholarship. A University committee nominated Allen and "another outstanding student" who applied to be considered, Dunleavy wrote in an email to The Herald. Allen stood out for his "self-taught" nature, independently pursuing "wide-ranging intellectual interests," Dunleavy wrote. She worked with Allen on applying for scholarships, and he impressed her and the committee "as someone who really has the potential to go far," she wrote.
An applied mathematics-biology concentrator, Allen came to Brown considering philosophy as a potential concentration. He took humanities classes almost exclusively in his first year, he said. But a summer of synthetic biology research with the University's International Genetically Engineered Machines team sparked his decision to focus on the sciences.
Allen was exposed to science at an early age growing up in Berkeley, CA., he said. In high school, he took advantage of opportunities to see speakers, go to seminars, take classes and use the libraries at the University of California at Berkeley.
Gilad Barnea, assistant professor of neuroscience, and his collaborator Stavros Lomvardas, assistant professor of anatomy at University of California at San Francisco, welcomed Allen into their research labs. An unusual amount of freedom in the lab and on the iGEM team kindled Allen's excitement for research, he said.
"He was not a passenger in the project. He was a driver," Barnea said. "And that is very unique I think — to be so young, yet to be so mature and knowledgeable and capable. I have no doubt that he will be a fantastic scientist."
Barnea challenged Allen's ideas, demolishing some but embracing others.
"The special thing about him is how creative he is and how fearless he is with respect to research," Barnea said.
The Churchill Foundation does not seek well-rounded applicants, but those with "jagged edges," according to the website. Allen said his "jagged edges" include his focus on very specific research that is "pretty technical" and "harder to relate to, maybe."
In Barnea's lab, Allen studied the mechanisms behind expression of olfactory receptor genes in the neurons of mice.
Gene regulation, turning genes on and off, is a fundamental aspect of development, Allen said. While much of his research remains theoretical, a future application might involve re-growing neurons for people with degenerative diseases, Allen said.
Allen contributed to a paper on this research that was published in Cell, a science journal, in 2011. He is also a co-author with Barnea and their collaborators of two papers that are currently undergoing peer review.
Allen said he believes some people may perceive science and research negatively, thinking it is narrowly focused and too technical. But it is actually creative, he said. "Being a scientist, I think, can be sort of self-expressive," he said.
Research has a "game aspect or a problem-solving aspect," he said. "There's always more to be learned. You always realize how little you know and how much there is."
Allen said he is looking forward to conducting research in Cambridge in the fall.
