Matthew Baum ’09 and Geoffrey Shaw ’10 are among 32 students nationwide who this weekend were awarded the Rhodes Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate academic scholarship.

The pair, who will head to Oxford next fall, was chosen from a field of 805 applicants endorsed by 326 schools across the country. The Rhodes Trust, which administers the scholarship, announced this year’s winners early Sunday morning.

Baum, who is an alumnus of Berkeley College and hails from Watertown, Mass., graduated last year with bachelor's and master's degrees in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Currently studying for a master's in neuroscience, at Trinity College, Ireland, as a Mitchell scholar, Baum plans to pursue a doctorate of philosophy in neuroethics at Oxford, the Rhodes Trust said.

At Yale, Baum conducted research on Fragile-X syndrome and was the president of Yale wrestling. He also played on the rugby team and coordinated a community service program, according to a biography provided by the Rhodes Trust.

A Branford College senior from Belvedere, Calif., Shaw will graduate this year with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and plans to pursue a bachelor of philosophy (a graduate degree) at Oxford, with a focus on legal philosophy, the Rhodes Trust said.

Shaw is currently the editor-in-chief of the Yale Philosophy Review, Branford's head freshman counselor and a student member of the Executive Committee, Yale's undergraduate disciplinary body. He served as the chairman of the Independent Party in the fall of his junior year, and has been a community volunteer in Kazakhstan and an English instructor in China. 

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The mission of AARS is to bring Rhodes Scholars in America together in support of the Rhodes Scholarship, its values, and Oxford University through events, publications, networks and the web.

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