Introducing our second intake of Stamps Scholars

The Queens' Stamps Scholars Program seeks to attract the most promising PhD candidates from the United States and foster their development as scholars, leaders and citizens of the world, through purposeful programming, mentoring and enhanced educational opportunities.

These post-matriculation scholarships make a significant contribution to fees and maintenance costs and also provide extra funding opportunities for enrichment activities, such as studying or volunteering abroad, conducting research or participating in a leadership programme or academic conference.

Our 2021 Stamps Scholars are:

Adam Barton
Ian Boyd
Janet Chang
Mercedes Cornelius
Austin McCraw
Molly Rottman

Adam is a PhD candidate in Education and an educational implementation scientist passionate about making transformative ideas work in practice.

My research emerges from years spent studying education innovations at the Brookings Institution; we analyzed thousands of promising international models, but time and again noted a pattern of implementational failure: they struggled to take root and endure. My work explores the social and psychological dimensions of educational change, with a focus on the role of community values and participatory design. Hopefully, these insights can help us co-design powerful and responsive learning models with communities around the world.

I graduated as valedictorian of Georgetown University. Since then, I've advised global leaders on designing, aligning, and implementing sustainable programs across the globe, including in Brazil, Bolivia, India, and Japan. I'm thrilled to have been awarded the Stamps Scholarship, which will allow me to return to conduct fieldwork and pilot participatory design principles in some of the communities I've been fortunate enough to serve. Perhaps the greatest gift, though, is joining the diverse and vibrant Stamps community; I cannot wait to learn alongside this cohort of interdisciplinary leaders. I know that we will inspire each other with new ways to approach research and practice, working together to make the world a better place.

Ian is a PhD candidate studying French in the Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) department. His research focuses on mobility for work and leisure and its engagement with the built environment in eighteenth-century France.

"I am thrilled to receive this scholarship and I would like to thank the Stamps Scholars Programme and Queens' College for this incredible opportunity. After completing my undergraduate degree at The University of Texas at Austin, I knew that I wanted something different, so I set my eyes on Cambridge.

Thanks to the Stamps Scholarship, I am able to stay at Queens' and complete my degree. I am also profoundly excited for the chance to join the community of Stamps Scholars. My research focuses on mobility for work and leisure and its interaction with the built urban environment. Since much of my work focuses on travel in eighteenth century France, it is crucial for me to be able to access local departmental and village archives across France.

The Stamps Scholarship makes this a reality for me and will allow me to engage more richly with sources that were previously inaccessible; a privilege that is truly invaluable to the successful outcome of my research and one for which I am extraordinarily grateful.

I would like for my work to call on us to re-imagine our relationship to cities and human movement within them today by recalling the events of the past. Thanks to this scholarship, I feel invigorated to go out and achieve that. It is truly an honor to have received this scholarship."

Janet Chang is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow in Innovative Training Networks from the European Commission and a PhD candidate in Engineering.

Her PhD research will be conducted in the framework of lifecycle data management of physical assets, leveraging BIM (Building Information Modeling) and cloud-based technologies. She holds a Master of Studies (MSt) in Construction Engineering from the University of Cambridge, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Industrial Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Mercedes is a PhD candidate in Physics and joined Queens' from Peking University, China, where she held an International Fellowship studying pharmaceutical kinetics of traditional Chinese medicine after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Los Angeles.

My doctoral research at the Cavendish Laboratory investigates emergent quantum biological phenomena in cancer. I am motivated and passionate about elucidating the explicit mechanism of fatal diseases to preserve life and minimize human suffering. The worldwide lockdown of 2019 has highlighted the importance of staying ahead of human disease and understanding how disease persists. My research includes exploiting the fundamental pathways of disease and discerning if quantum affects play an important role inside the living cell.

Becoming a Stamps Scholar has afforded me the opportunity to be amongst a diverse population of exceptional young people who promote the values and character traits of the Stamps Scholars Programme and Dr. Stamps; such as leadership, vision, and character - these are traits that I endeavor to embody continuously. The Stamps Scholarship also furthers my academic and professional development by providing access to the dream fund that I could use to curate my dreams of giving back to my community and commit to awesome research in quantum physics. I am so grateful to Queens' College and the Stamps Scholars Programme for helping me to achieve my goals.

Austin is a PhD candidate in Divinity.

It is difficult to put into words the gratitude I feel for both Queens’ College and the Stamps Scholars community. Both are a “home” away from home.

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2019, our family (all 7 of us) made one of the biggest decisions of our lives: to move overseas so I could continue my research on personal/spiritual transformation at the University of Cambridge. In short, I am interested in the ways in which higher education can adapt to the digital landscape in order to truly impact the lives of students and communities. Who knew that the 2020 pandemic would only intensify this need in such a short time? The Stamps Scholarship enables me to step out of the library (as nice as it is at Queens’) and actually learn from key academic leaders and educational visionaries from around world – many coming from the Stamps’ community of partner universities and colleges.

My hope is that by putting experience in dialogue with theologies of spiritual transformation, new ideas and solutions will emerge for the multi-dimensional educational environment we all live in today. I am beyond grateful for Queens’ College and the Strive Foundation for their support of this work.

Molly is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, studying the histories of American art and design education at the turn of the 20th century. Prior to arriving at Queens', Molly earned a BA in Anthropology at Grinnell College and an MA in Fashion Studies at Parsons School of Design.

I'm incredibly grateful to both the Stamps Scholars Programme and Queens' for providing this scholarship, allowing me to continue in my studies and combine my professional and personal interests for enrichment.

While I spend my days thinking about design education, I'm excited to use the enrichment funding to pursue my other passion, primate conservation. The Stamps Scholarship will allow me to volunteer in the education department of a local primate sanctuary. I appreciate how Stamps embraces my interests, and that they understand and value the growth that can occur outside the classroom. I look forward to getting to know and work with the Stamps community here at Queens', as well as the larger community in the States.