BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Caroline Utermann is among three Yale University seniors and two recent Yale graduates selected as 2026 Gates Cambridge Scholars, a postgraduate scholarship program that provides full tuition toward study and research in any subject at the University of Cambridge.
The three Yale seniors, Tenzin Dhondup, Lily Jackson, and Utermann, as well as Anna Rullan Buxo, a member of Yale College’s Class of 2022, and Lucía Amaya, from the Class of 2025, are among 76 social leaders from across the world who will begin their studies this fall. They will join more than 170 other scholars already in residence at the United Kingdom university.
Dhondup, Jackson, and Rullan Buxo were among 26 U.S. scholars announced in February. Utermann and Amaya were among 50 international scholars announced in April.
The Gates Cambridge Scholars program was established in 2000 through a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since the first class in 2001, it has awarded 2,355 scholarships to scholars from 112 countries.
A double major in Neuroscience and Comparative Literature, Utermann will pursue an M.Phil degree in Stem Cell Biology at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute in the Storer Laboratory. Her research lies at the intersection of regenerative biology and oncology, investigating whether regenerative factors in mouse digit tips can be repurposed for tumor suppression, with the long-term goal of translating these findings into novel therapeutic strategies for targeting cancer.
At Yale, the London, England, native has conducted research on the role of the gut-brain axis in Parkinson’s Disease. She says that her research last summer at the University of Basel, where she contributed to the development of next-generation CAR-T cell therapies for glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer, confirmed her interest in oncology. Her comparative literature thesis is an original translation of the Algerian author Assia Djebar’s “The Naïve Larks” from French into English. Alongside her research, she has served as captain for the Women’s Club Lacrosse team, is a member of the Yale Women’s Water Polo team, and is a member of the Yale Political Union. She is committed to using her dual science and humanities background to improving public understanding of science through writing and education.
Information courtesy Yale University
