Meet Northeastern’s 2025 Churchill and Kanders Scholarship Nominees
We’re delighted to share news of our nominees for the Churchill Scholarship and Kanders Churchill Scholarship. The Churchill Scholarship recognizes accomplishment and potential for success in STEM research, fully funding a post-baccalaureate year at Churchill College, Cambridge University. The Kanders Churchill Scholarship in Science Policy addresses the growing divide between science and science policy. It funds a Cambridge Master’s in Public Policy for those who have earned an undergraduate degree in a STEM field. Best of luck Huskies!
Linden Burack COS’26, Physics
Mentors: Emanuela Barberis, Michele Di Pierro, Eugene Tang, Jacqueline McCleary
Nominations: Churchill Scholarship
Home: New York
Linden Burack is an aspiring physicist whose research leverages simulations and machine learning to understand the natural world. In his freshman year, Linden joined the Di Pierro Lab at the Center for Theoretical Biophysics working to model the 3D structure of the genome. Funded by the PEAK Basecamp, Ascent, and Summit awards, he built in-silico GAM, a publicly available computer simulation of an experimental technique in the field, and used it to inform how future experiments in the field should be designed.
In 2024, Linden moved to Geneva Switzerland for a six month coop at CERN, joining a global collaboration searching for new fundamental particles. Linden built a computational framework for training machine learning models now used by several scientists at CERN. He used these tools to explore a new strategy for identifying physically interesting muons which will provide better data to future searches for fundamental particles. Returning to Boston, Linden joined Professors Jacqueline McCleary and Jonathan Blazek, where he is exploring a new approach to testing cosmological models using the James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of the most distant galaxies. He was awarded the Physics Department Award for Undergraduate Scholastic Excellence in 2024. He is also very motivated by science outreach, working with Boston Public high school students as a volunteer in Northeastern’s Bridge to Physics Program and at Fenway High School.
Linden aspires to a career using experiments and telescope observations to test fundamental physics, working in global collaboration towards a deeper understanding of the universe. He plans to pursue a PhD in physics. Outside research, Linden plays lead guitar and banjo in a band.
Ashley La Rotonda Khoury’26, Computer Science and Mathematics
Mentors: David Fields, John Basl
Nominations: Kanders Churchill Scholarship
Home: Massachusetts
Ashley La Rotonda is a fourth-year undergraduate at Northeastern University studying Computer Science and Mathematics. She’s completed a co-op at StormFlag Games, three internships at Google, and now works as a Generative AI Product Developer at the Burnes Center for Social Change. There, she’s helping build One-L, a generative AI tool that helps Massachusetts review contracts faster and more efficiently.
Ashley hopes to pursue a master’s in public policy focused on AI governance, bridging innovation with policies that protect people. She also plans to live abroad sometime after graduation, finally traveling outside North American, hopefully with all the truly wonderful friends she has made throughout the years.
Beyond her academic and professional work, Ashley finds fulfillment in her creative and cultural outlets. She performs with NU Barkada, where she served as the 2024–2025 Media Specialist, and with Revolve Dance Crew. She has also been involved with The Avenue magazine, the Northeastern University Growth and Opportunities for Asian American Leaders (GOAL) program, the Artificial Intelligence and Data Ethics Group, Hawai‘i Ohana at Northeastern, and the Research Immerse program.
Fun fact: she is quite good at whistling.