A student in Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has brought home the University’s fourth Gates Cambridge award

Jeffrey Lockhart, FCRH ’13, a GSAS master’s candidate in computer science with a concentration in data mining, is one of 40 students who have been selected from the United States to receive a full scholarship to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to pursue graduate study. He expects to graduate from GSAS in May and begin at Cambridge the following September, where he will get his master’s in philosophy in Cambridge’s multidisciplinary gender study program.

As an undergraduate, Lockhart was a double major in computer and information science and women’s studies, graduating summa cum laude and earning the Fordham Women’s Studies Essay Award for his thesis on LGBTQ ethics. Since 2010 he has been a research assistant in the University’s Wireless Sensor Data Mining Lab, where he works closely with Gary Weiss, Ph.D., associate professor of computer and information science, on the use of smart phone sensor data for activity recognition.

Lockhart has been a National Merit Scholar and Fordham Presidential Scholar. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society and Sigma Xi scientific research society. In 2012, he was one of 75 undergraduates around the country who presented their research in Washington, D.C. at an annual event attracting the attention of Capitol Hill.

“Jeff is indeed a tribute to Jesuit education,” said John Ryle Kezel, Ph.D., director of the University’s St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Intellectual Excellence. “He really makes one proud of the preparation our students get, especially from taking our core courses.”

Lockhart called himself fortunate to have many members of the Fordham community influencing and supporting his work—in particular his faculty mentors: Weiss; Orit Avishai, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology; Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of theology; and Judith Green, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and co-director of women’s studies. He believed that his interdisciplinary background in gender studies and computer science was a big plus in his being awarded the scholarship.

One of the most prestigious international scholarships, the Gates Cambridge award was established in 2000 with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The scholarship goes to 90 students annually (40 U.S. students, 50 from other nations) and covers the full cost of studying at Cambridge. A defining characteristic of the Gates Cambridge scholarships is the commitment of scholars to work for the greater good.

Three Fordham students have previously received the award. They are: Rose Spear, FCRH ’06, who received the award to study biomaterials research; Joseph Clair, GSAS ’08, the first student ever to receive a Gates scholarship in divinity; and Jeremiah Schwarz, FCRH ’03, who received the award in history.

— Janet Sassi

As a Gates-Cambridge Scholar, Rose will work with an international team of researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy on a D. Phil. project in bone tissue engineering.  The objective of her research at Cambridge is to develop a new bone adhesion material and a biomedical method for healing broken bones. As a future physician-scientist, Rose hopes to discover international treatment protocols through groundbreaking biomaterials research.

Under the stewardship of Ipsita Banerjee, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemistry at Fordham University, Rose worked with a research team analyzing biomedical applications of peptide nanotubes and nanoscale bone materials as a means to develop artificial bone. In May 2005, she presented her research findings at the Undergraduate Research Symposium

“I am thrilled about receiving the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to research bone tissue materials at Cambridge in the fall,” said Spear, who will graduate in May 2006. “My work with Dr. Banerjee showed me how I could combine my love of medicine and my fascination for scientific research, and I look forward to my research at the Medical Materials Centre at Cambridge University.”

Spear was a junior inductee to Phi Beta Kappa and is the current president of the Fordham University chapter of Alpha Sigma Nu – the Jesuit honor society.  In 2005, she was awarded a Matteo Ricci Summer Fellowship through Fordham’s St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Intellectual Excellence to conduct a summer internship in medicinal chemistry at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where she synthesized enzyme inhibitors as potential cures for Alzheimer’s disease. Her research has appeared in Polymer Preprints and she has submitted a full-length article to the Journal of “Colloids and Surfaces-Biointerfaces.”

A native of Newburgh, New York, Spear is the daughter of Elizabeth and Howard J.P. Spear. Among her numerous extracurricular activities, Rose enjoys singing with the Folk Choir and performs as a member of both the Pep Band (glockenspiel) and the University Band (oboe).

Spear received the Gates Cambridge Scholarship with the assistance of Fordham’s St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Intellectual Excellence, which provides information and guidance to exemplary students seeking competitive awards for undergraduate and graduate study or research. The Campion Institute attempts to identify and motivate Fordham students for such major fellowships as Fulbright, Marshall, and Mitchell scholarships. The Institute also sponsors the Matteo Ricci Summer Fellowship Program, where undergraduate students are paired with faculty mentors to conduct appropriate research.

The Gates-Cambridge Trust Scholarships were created in 2000 when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of Seattle, Wash., announced a $210 million donation to the University of Cambridge to endow the program. The scholarships, which are awarded only to students who gain admission to Cambridge University through its highly selective admission process, cover the full cost of study at the University.

The scholarships are awarded on the basis of a person’s capacity for leadership, intellectual ability, and their desire to use their knowledge to contribute to the well being of society. Since the start of program, 527 Gates Scholars from 72 countries have been selected, 224 of them from the United States. Spear is the first student from Fordham to ever be awarded the scholarship and the only student from a Jesuit University to receive the scholarship this year.