Mandal Awarded Gates Cambridge Scholarship

Ayan Mandal (C’18) will attend Cambridge University next year on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. (Photo courtesy Ayan Mandal)

February 16, 2018 — Congratulations to Ayan Mandal (C’18), who has been awarded a Gates Scholarship to attend Cambridge University.

A double major in neurobiology and biological physics, Mandal plans to earn his Ph.D. in psychiatry while at Cambridge, before likely returning to the United States to attend medical school. He is the first Georgetown student or alum to be awarded the Gates Scholarship since Michael Meaney (C’12) in 2016.

A Long Island native, Mandal arrived on the Hilltop intending to study linguistics, and soon realized that his interests lay more in the neurological basis for language. He began working in the Cognitive Recovery Lab alongside Dr. Peter Turkeltaub of Georgetown University Medical Center; there, he applies computer science tools to medical issues like aphasia, or stroke-induced language deficits.

In 2017, Mandal became the first Georgetown student since 2014 to be awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, one of the country’s most prestigious awards for students in mathematics, engineering, and the natural sciences. The College profiled him last year after the Goldwater win.

Beyond his laboratory work, Mandal participates in the Carroll Fellows Initiative and writes a column on neuroscience for The Hoya.