Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Nominated for Churchill Scholarship

Two Northeastern University seniors who embody the university’s ethos of cutting-edge research applied to pressing global challenges are the institution’s inaugural nominees for the Churchill Scholarship, a highly competitive national award that funds a year of post-baccalaureate study in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics at Churchill College, Cambridge. The program, which seeks young researchers of exceptional promise, was set up at the request of Sir Winston Churchill in order to fulfill his vision of US-UK scientific exchange with the goal of advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic, helping to ensure our future prosperity and security. Northeastern’s nominees for the 2020 Churchill Scholarship are Kritika Singh COE’20 and Alexandra Veliche COS’20.

Kritika Singh’s work on neglected diseases—that is, a set of diseases common in low-income populations that receive little attention or research funding because of those they impact and the fact that, though they significantly impair human health, they are often non-lethal—combines the tools of biomedical research, clinical practice, and global health policy. A bioengineering major and Goldwater Scholar, Kritika spent a year as a research assistant in a malaria immunology lab at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases while in high school and, with the support of the Summer Scholars Independent Research Fellowship, has worked for over two years on epigenetics and malaria in the Mazitschek Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. But Kritika, who is a member of the University Scholars and Honors Programs, understands that science alone will not eradicate disease, and in parallel with her research, she has also developed skills in policy and advocacy to amplify her impact. She founded and directs a nonprofit organization, Malaria Free World, which engages in peer-to-peer education, fundraising, and political lobbying, and she has worked to empower others through the Northeastern University Global Health Initiative (NUGHI), which she also founded. Kritika and the NUGHI team earned a Bridge-Builder Award to produce one of the largest student-led undergraduate global health conferences in the nation, bringing together a broad interdisciplinary range of students, practitioners, and experts who embodied Kritika’s collaborative vision for making change. In recognition of her advocacy, Kritika earned a 2019 Truman Scholarship. Kritika proposes to earn the MPhil in Translational Biomedical Research offered by Cambridge’s Department of Medicine as a Churchill Scholar.

A student of mathematics and computer science, Alexandra Veliche has distinguished herself at Northeastern by the rigor, sophistication, depth, and independence of her mathematical studies; her pointed use of Northeastern’s cooperative education model to connect her abstract studies to practical, timely, and consequential problems; and her leadership in building intellectual community amongst undergraduate mathematicians. Alexandra aspires to be a leading researcher in the emergent and vital field of post-quantum cryptography. While recent major advances toward “quantum supremacy” have drawn public attention to the onward march of quantum computing, researchers have for some time understood that quantum computing would eventually render conventional cryptographic techniques obsolete. Through advanced and independent studies of topics such as lattices and elliptic curves, Alexandra is currently building her expertise in areas that will be vital to developing next-generation cryptography. Meanwhile, on co-op at Cengage Learning, Alexandra confronted the challenges of information security in our networked world, seeing firsthand how the increasing sophistication of bad actors, and the increasing computing power available to them, poses a growing challenge to conventional tools that mathematics has provided for keeping our financial, health, diplomatic, military, and other sensitive information secure. As president of Northeastern’s Math Club for the past two years, meanwhile, Alexandra fostered intellectual community and supported her peers as they pushed themselves to new levels of achievement. Alexandra proposes to undertake Part III of the Mathematics Tripos—a deep exploration of advanced topics—at Cambridge.