The scholarship, totaling around $45,000, pays for a year of study at Churchill College, one of the colleges of Cambridge University in England for students in math, science and engineering. Thirteen Churchill Scholarships were awarded nationwide this year.
Oza, who is concentrating in chemistry with a certificate in applied and computational mathematics, was a 2005 recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence. One of the highlights of his academic career was a presentation he made before the American Geophysical Union about Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Pixton, a math major with an interest in number theory, has already had a paper he co-wrote published in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society and has submitted three more for publication. Pixton also won gold medals in the International Mathematics Olympiad in 2003 and 2004 and has garnered numerous awards at Princeton, including sharing the Andrew H. Brown Prize for juniors in 2007 and winning the Class of 1861 Prize for sophomores in 2006.
Oza’s work focuses on the interplay between mathematics and other scientific disciplines. He is currently writing his thesis on quantum mechanics under chemistry professor Herschel Rabitz.
“He’s always been an avid student of math,” said Patrick Ho ’08, a friend of Oza’s. “He ended up taking chemistry because he enjoyed applying the math, but he stays pretty close to theory,” he said, noting that Oza’s thesis topic, quantum control, is highly theoretical. “[Oza] really loves what he’s doing, and the Churchill program seems like the perfect fit for him.”
Andris Zvargulis ’08, a fellow chemistry major, said that Oza plans to pursue a doctorate in applied math. “He really loves math for what it is — give him a good problem and he’s happy,” he said.
Oza particularly enjoys math because of the “feeling of suddenly understanding something a lot better after working on it” and plans to become a career mathematician, according to a University statement.
“They are both very different students,” said Peter Bogucki, chair of the Churchill Nomination Committee and associate engineering dean. “[Pixton] is certainly one of the best students of mathematics in the country. Anand is very different. He wants to apply mathematical models to a whole variety of scientific fields.”
Bogucki said that Pixton and Oza are both “spectacular students that are deserving of this great honor.”
At Cambridge, both Oza and Pixton plan to take Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, a program in which students conduct intensive projects in mathematics.
Pixton declined to be interviewed for this article, and Oza could not be reached.
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